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Peronist Fernandez wins Argentine presidential election
BUENOS AIRES, Oct 28, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Peronist candidate Alberto Fernandez
swept to a first-round triumph in Argentina’s presidential election Sunday,
official results showed, bringing to an end the crisis-plagued rule of
market-friendly incumbent Mauricio Macri.
Fernandez, a 60-year-old law professor, had nearly 48 percent of the votes
— crossing the threshold for outright victory — after 94 percent of the
votes had been counted, with center-right incumbent Mauricio Macri trailing
at 40.53 percent.
To win outright, Fernandez required 45 percent, or 40 percent with a 10
point margin over his nearest rival.
His win also caps a remarkable political comeback for his running mate, ex-
president Cristina Kirchner, who will be his vice-president.
Thousands of ecstatic Fernandez supporters cheered and danced outside his
Frente de Todos party headquarters in Buenos Aires.
“It’s a great day for Argentina,” a smiling Fernandez told reporters after
exit polls and his own party’s tallies had given him victory.
Macri, 60, conceded with around 80 percent of the vote counted and pledged
“a healthy and constructive opposition.”
He said he had spoken by phone to Fernandez and had “invited him to
breakfast tomorrow at the Casa Rosada because he has to start a period of
orderly transition that will bring tranquility to Argentines,” Macri told his
supporters.
Fernandez, who assumes power on December 10, confirmed in a victory speech
that he would meet Macri on Monday morning to collaborate on the transition.
Macri, whose popularity has fallen sharply in the last year as Argentina
battled recession and market turmoil, said after he voted that competing
“visions of the future” were at stake in the polls.
On a night of disappointment for the center-right, there was some
consolation when the candidate for Macri’s Together for Change coalition,
Horacio Rodriguez, won the mayorship of the city of Buenos Aires. He beat the
leftist candidate Matias Lammens by some distance.
– High turnout –
The interior ministry said turnout in Sunday’s general election was over 80
percent after a campaign dominated by the crippling economic crisis affecting
Latin America’s second-biggest economy.
Macri had called for a massive turnout, which analysts saw as his main hope
of closing a large opinion poll deficit on Fernandez and forcing a second
round.
Fernandez vowed to end sharp divisions between his Peronist movement and
supporters of the business-friendly incumbent.
“The days of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ are over,” the mustachioed leftist leader said
after voting in the swanky Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires. “We
are in an enormous crisis. Everyone has to take responsibility for what’s
ahead.”
The election comes amid high tensions in the region, with massive protests
in neighboring Chile and Bolivia, as well as recent unrest over inequality in
Ecuador.
Voter Maria Marta Rosauer, 54, said she would give Macri “another vote of
confidence.”
“I voted with the conviction and the certainty that he did things well and
that he could have done better, but he needed time,” she said.
“Nobody can put a country on its feet in four years, after how he found it.
We opened our doors to the world after many years of being almost forgotten,”
she said, referring to the years when Argentina was a market pariah following
a 2001 default.
MORE/MSY/0903 hrs
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There are “two models of government at stake here. Alberto and Cristina
represent greater equity,” said another voter, Liliana, a 64-year-old
architect in the capital. “I’m excited to see the end of a country that only
benefits a small group.”
The populist Kirchner, 66, who is facing trial in one of several graft
cases stemming from her time in office, voted in the southern city of Rio
Gallegos before flying to Buenos Aires to join celebrations.
Kirchner has long been a polarizing figure who succeeded her husband Nestor
Kirchner as president in 2007 and remained in power until 2015.
– Market fears –
The return to power of protectionist Peronists comes amid a lengthy
recession and a debt crunch, raising market fears of a possible default on a
$57 billion IMF loan.
The peso fell 5.86 percent in the week before the elections, and the week
ended with the dollar at 65 pesos.
“The markets will be negative” in their reaction to a Fernandez triumph on
Monday, said Nicolas Saldias, a senior researcher at the Wilson Center.
“It won’t be as brutal as in August (after the primary result), but people
are taking their money out of the country, out of the banks.”
“A lot depends on whether he shows his capacity to compromise.
“Macri is the president but Fernandez has the power. There has to be some
signal that they are working together.”
Fernandez has insisted his government would not default but rather seek to
renegotiate the terms of the loan, and sought to reassure voters that their
bank deposits would be safe under his administration.
Since Fernandez’s crushing victory in August primaries, which made him the
favorite for the presidency, Argentine savers have withdrawn around $12
billion from their accounts.
Macri blamed Argentina’s economic problems on previous Peronist governments
under Kirchner (2007-15) and her late husband Nestor Kirchner (2003-07).
The poverty rate has risen to more than 35 percent, inflation for the year
to September was at almost 38 percent, while the peso has depreciated 70
percent since January 2018.
Voters were also electing half of the Chamber of Deputies, a third of the
Senate, and the governor of Buenos Aires province.
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