President Macri's coalition 'ahead' in crucial Argentina mid-term election
Last edited Sun Oct 22, 2017, 11:12 PM - Edit history (1)
Argentina's President Mauricio Macri's coalition looks to be on course to make significant gains in the country's congressional elections.
Partial results show his centre-right 'Let's Change' alliance leading in the capital Buenos Aires, and in 12 out of 23 provinces.
Over 33 million Argentines were eligible to vote, which saw a third of seats in the Senate contested, along with half of those in the lower house of Congress. More than 78% of registered voters took part.
Macri was elected by a narrow margin two years ago and won't have an outright majority. His coalition will gain at least 19 seats in the lower house, bringing its total to 105 out of 257, and reach 24 seats out of 72 in the Senate.
This election is being seen as a test of his ability to win re-election in 2019.
The most closely-watched race was in Buenos Aires Province, where the centre-left former President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, received 37% in her Senate bid. Although trailing Macri's former Education Minister Esteban Bullrich, who received 41%, second place was enough for the 64-year-old to win one of the province's three Senate seats, under Argentina's list system.
The nationwide Senate electoral map favored Macri's Let's Change, as just 3 of its 17 senators were at stake; the pro-Kirchner Front for Victory (FpV) and allies were contesting 20 of its 43 senators.
Doctored precinct summaries
Nationwide primaries held on August 14 were marred by irregularities, with evidence surfacing of doctored precinct summary pdf files showing zeroed-out counts for Kirchner's Citizen's Unity in a number of cases.
Former House Speaker Leopoldo Moreau, an ally of Mrs. Kirchner, explained that Citizen's Unity had opened its own tabulation center to corroborate official figures; but described today's polls as "proceeding normally thus far."
Santiago Maldonado
Today's elections were also overshadowed by the August 1 disappearance of 28 year-old artist and activist Santiago Maldonado, who was last seen during a Gendarmerie raid on an indigenous Mapuche protest camp in Patagonia.
Maldonado's body was found on October 17 nearly a mile upstream, prompting Mapuche spokesmen and his own family to assert that his body may have been planted there by government forces in an attempt to diffuse the controversy ahead of today's polls.
At: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41717100
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It's so important to see a movement developing soon to rush these criminals out of office before they gain full strength and it's far too late to avoid the tremendous damage they are going to do to the people of Argentina, just like their predecessors, the colleagues and allies of Macri's father and his dirty circle of thieves, the predator class which always travels on the backs of the military fascists.
You know, Bullrich is probably a little sorry he won tonight.
Rumor had it that if he had lost, instead of accepting his Senate seat (the winner in each province gets two Senate seats; the runner-up is entitled to one seat) he would have been appointed Ambassador to the U.S.
The post, you'll recall, has been vacant since Martín Lousteau resigned in April after news emerged that Macri had been secretly trying to get U.S. congressional approval for a $2.5 billion arms purchase.
The U.S., in turn, hasn't had an ambassador in Buenos Aires since Trump sacked them all in January.
Getting back to the election, they must be pleased with tonight's result - but probably expected even more. They outspent Cristina Kirchner's Citizen's Unity by 3-to-1 after all.
What worries me most isn't so much what this means for economic policy (since Macri decrees almost anything Congress won't pass anyway); but the likelihood of their getting their electronic vote bill passed.
It's still unlikely because Macri will still have just 24 out of 72 senators (they now have 15) - but tonight makes it a little easier.
As far as the movie, I'm happy you liked it Judi. I'm fond of foreign films myself, and am always up for suggestions (as long as there are subtitles!). I believe the scene you mentioned is the one with the American speaker, and it figures that there'd be a Menem lookalike since there's a sizable Syrian/Lebanese community in Argentina (Menem was just re-elected to the Senate at 87, believe it or not - though he now votes as a moderate).
The American speaker represents any one of the many Friedmanites that used to flock to Buenos Aires to give lectures during the dictatorship (particularly in '79-'80). Their Argentine sponsors were often the same types in the Macri administration today: crush unions, flood the country with imports, deregulate everything, and offshore the money before the bill comes due.
Thank you for the excellent Salomon Partnoy article about the 2002 debacle. I just hope this current debt bubble can be controlled in time - unlike the ones under Menem and the dictatorship.
Have a great night, Judi. *clink* 