In Argentina Elections, Tight Vote Yields Presidential Runoff. The New York Times.
October 25, 2015. By Simon Romero and Jonathan Gilbert for The New York Times.
With Mrs. Kirchner, 62, constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, the leading candidates ran carefully orchestrated campaigns that seemed to reflect a longing in the electorate for a break with her divisive governing style. Mrs. Kirchner intensified attacks on opponents in the news media and business establishment after succeeding her late husband, Néstor Kirchner, as president in 2007.
“More moderation is expected as the Kirchner era comes to a close,” said Mariel Fornoni, director of Management and Fit, a leading polling company. “There’s an enormous desire in society for less polarization.”
“He is an amiable, middle-of-the-road, middle-class, middle-aged and fairly athletic bloke of Italian extraction who, with a winning smile, tells us that the country can easily overcome all its many economic and social problems,” James Neilson wrote in a column in The Buenos Aires Herald.
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Image: Voter lists in Buenos Aires on Sunday. Many voters want a break from President Kirchner’s style.
NATACHA PISARENKO / ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUENOS AIRES — Argentine voters sent the country’s presidential race
into a runoff on Sunday, boosting hopes in the opposition after Mauricio
Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, made a surprisingly strong showing
against the candidate endorsed by President Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner, according to partial results released by the electoral
authorities.
Pointing to a remarkably tight race, Daniel Scioli, a former vice
president supported by Mrs. Kirchner, took 35.7 percent of the vote with
84 percent of balloting stations tallied, against 35.3 percent for Mr.
Macri. The votes obtained by Mr. Macri, a former president of one of
Argentina’s most popular soccer clubs who ran to the right of his
rivals, upend a race in which Mr. Scioli was viewed as a strong
front-runner.
The candidates signaled an intense new phase of campaigning ahead of
the runoff election on Nov. 22. Sergio Massa, a former ally of Mrs.
Kirchner’s who moved into the opposition, could find himself in the role
of kingmaker after securing 21 percent of the vote in the partial
count, with analysts questioning whether he will forge an alliance with
Mr. Macri.
“I invite you to conquer our future,” Mr. Macri, 56, said Sunday
night, in a conciliatory speech before the first official results were
released after midnight, as he positioned his campaign to lure more
voters.
With Mrs. Kirchner, 62, constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, the leading candidates ran carefully orchestrated campaigns that seemed to reflect a longing in the electorate for a break with her divisive governing style. Mrs. Kirchner intensified attacks on opponents in the news media and business establishment after succeeding her late husband, Néstor Kirchner, as president in 2007.
“More moderation is expected as the Kirchner era comes to a close,” said Mariel Fornoni, director of Management and Fit, a leading polling company. “There’s an enormous desire in society for less polarization.”
Mr. Scioli, 58, a former speedboat racer, sought to appeal to Mrs.
Kirchner’s supporters by contending that he did not plan any abrupt
policy shifts. Lacking her combative rhetorical spirit, he came across
as a safe option for many voters who want continuity for programs that
have increased social welfare spending over the past 12 years.
“I never won a race smashing into a competitor’s boat,” Mr. Scioli
told reporters during the campaign. “To the contrary, I always look to
improve on what’s been achieved.”
Even though Mr. Scioli seemed to fall short of obtaining the support
on Sunday of some die-hard supporters of Mrs. Kirchner, the possibility
of continuity under Mr. Scioli appealed to many voters.
“Scioli is with the poor people,” said María Rosa González, 66, a
maid who voted for him on Sunday. She explained that her late father, a
corn harvester, had been able to claim a state pension under a 2005 law
supported by the Kirchners in which workers who had not paid
contributions could collect retirement benefits. “This government helped
the people. It’s on display.”
Economists here argue over the costs of such policies, with some
saying that Mrs. Kirchner’s successor will have to grapple with
galloping inflation and a yawning budget deficit. But her supporters say
that antipoverty spending was badly needed in the country after a
chaotic economic collapse and political turmoil in 2001 and 2002.
Mr. Macri, a civil engineer by training, said he would introduce
market-oriented changes aiming to loosen currency controls and lure
great investment into Argentina’s economy, standing in contrast to his
rivals.
Mrs. Kirchner still holds considerable sway, emerging as one of
Argentina’s strongest leaders in recent decades. She has recently moved
to enhance her power through a calculated series of moves, potentially
casting her shadow over the management of the economy and foreign policy
well after she is scheduled to leave office in December.
While voting unfolded peacefully around the country, the leading
candidate needed more than 45 percent of the vote, or 40 percent and a
margin larger than 10 points over the nearest rival, to avoid the
runoff. The delay by the authorities in releasing the results, which
were made public about six hours after polls had closed, left much of
the country on tenterhooks.
Throughout the race, many voters and analysts here were struck as
much by the similarities among the leading candidates as their
differences, reflecting strategies of offering a nonthreatening
alternative to Mrs. Kirchner’s commanding presence. Even Mr. Macri, who
began campaigning from another part of the ideological spectrum, sought
to appeal to supporters of Peronism, the ideologically diverse political
grouping that dominates Argentine politics.
Kirchnerismo, the leftist movement named for the Kirchners, came to
overshadow other factions aligned with Peronism, which originated
decades ago during the rule of Juan Domingo Perón. Mindful of the
hazards of opposing Peronist power brokers, the three men adopted
reserved campaign styles, leading some to suggest that a composite
candidate could easily be made of Mr. Scioli, Mr. Macri and Mr. Massa.
“He is an amiable, middle-of-the-road, middle-class, middle-aged and fairly athletic bloke of Italian extraction who, with a winning smile, tells us that the country can easily overcome all its many economic and social problems,” James Neilson wrote in a column in The Buenos Aires Herald.
A selection of toned-down candidates suited some voters just fine.
“He’s less bellicose, less divisive,” said Nicolás Quadri, 28, an
architect who voted for Mr. Macri, contending the candidate would have
“more logical international policies.”
Eying the possibility of an alliance between Mr. Macri and Mr. Massa,
political analysts were examining how many of Mr. Massa’s supporters
could help swing the vote. Some estimate that about a third of Mr.
Massa’s support came from dissident Peronists who could actually swing
back to Mr. Scioli, potentially handing him a victory.
“That greatly limits Massa’s margin for maneuver,” said Sergio
Berensztein, an Argentine political analyst. Still, he said Mr. Macri
would have already contemplated how to court this 30 percent, pointing
to a statue of Juan Domingo Perón, the founder of Peronism, that Mr.
Macri recently unveiled. “That’s why he inaugurated the statue,” Mr.
Berensztein said.
Image: Voter lists in Buenos Aires on Sunday. Many voters want a break from President Kirchner’s style.
NATACHA PISARENKO / ASSOCIATED PRESS