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De Narv ez celebrates victory in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires Herald
June 28, 2009

Congressional candidate Francisco de Narv ez is leading the midterm election in Buenos Aires province ahead of ex-president N stor Kirchner, in a high-profile race in the country's mid-term elections, early official results showed.

With 36 percent of the vote counting, Uni n-PRO is ahead with 34.78 percent of the ballot, and the Justicialist Victory Front is second with 32.78 percent. The Social and Civic Accord would garner 21.16 percent of the votes, and Nuevo Encuentro 6 percent.

When voting stations closed at 6pm, poll showed Kirchner had a slight lead, but the station did not provide percentages and said the race was very close, implying the lead was within the poll's margin of error.

"One day we would change history, and that day is today," said De Narv ez before the crowd celebrating the victory of the Uni n-PRO. Manwhile, hundreds of supporters chanted songs and waved yellow flags. De Narv ez said his administration would focus on improving productivity and fighting crime.

De Narv ez dedicated the victory to City Mayor Mauricio Macri, showing a strong support for his ally in the capital, who would likely run for the presidency in 2011.

The opposition lawmaker said he was glad about the outcome of the elections, "as the Kirchners will neither have a majority in Congress, nor in the Upper House, and they will lose a significant number of seats."

His main contender, ex-president N stor Kirchner has not made any comments on the results of the elections.

Elisa Carri , head of the Civic Coalition, celebrated the good results of her party in BA province claiming that the government 'will not be able to hide its defeat.' She said tomorrow, with the announcement of the final results, "a day of liberation will come."

Speaking after Carri , Gerardo Morales, chairman of the Radical Party said "there will be no longer any majorities in Congress. The government will have the largest minority, and we will have the second."

The government has lost substantial support in the parliament which had allowed Kirchnerites to pass key projects in in the past years, including the nationalization of private companies, pension funds and the so called superpowers, which allowed the government to discretionally use fund allocations of the national budget.

"Kirchner's defeat cleary shows they must start discussing with other solutions for the main problems affecting Argentina," Morales said.

The mid-terms are viewed as a springboard for the 2011 presidential race, and Kirchner's chances will fade if he comes in second in a tight race with de Narv ez.

Fern ndez de Kirchner, a centre-leftist President who in 2007 succeeded her husband ex-President N stor Kirchner, has stagnated with a 30 percent approval rating after the national economy hits turbulence after a six-year expansion.

According to polls, Argentines' biggest concerns are crime and inflation, according to opinion polls, and Fernandez's failure to tame high prices is one reason her popularity has flagged.

Exit polls show the President's wing of the ruling Peronist party will lose its majority in the 257-seat lower house and barely maintain control of the 72-seat Senate in the mid-term vote.

The key race is in Buenos Aires province, home to 38 percent of Argentines, where dueling Peronist factions are scrambling for the largest share of the 35 lower house seats up for grabs in that district alone.

Kirchner, widely seen as co-governing the country with his wife, is running for Congress in the populous province to shore up her administration and possibly position himself for a presidential run to extend their hold on power through 2015.

Poorer neighbourhoods around the capital are a Kirchner stronghold where government welfare and infrastructure programs are popular.

"This government got us out of a crisis and I think there's a lot more left for them to do. The other side is an orthodox right wing that ... doesn't care if people lose their jobs," said Martin D az, 36, a postman in the Avellaneda suburb.

The Kirchners' confrontational style - including frequent clashes with business leaders and farmers - over their six years in power has also worn thin on Argentines.

On the campaign trail, Kirchner warned the country will return to the chaos of the 2001- 2002 economic and political meltdown if people do not back him and his wife.

Argentina's powerful agricultural sector rebelled last year against Fern ndez's plans for higher taxes on soy, the country's top crop. If she is weakened, farmers will push for less government intervention in farm exports and grain markets.

The presidents of neighbouring Brazil and Chile have seen their popularity soar even as their economies go into recession because people in those countries approve of how they are handling the crisis.

But Fern ndez de Kirchner's measures to combat a dramatic economic slowdown and rising unemployment have not generated confidence even though she moved up the mid-term by four months to get them out of the way in case the crisis worsened.

The newly elected members of Congress will not take office until December, so uncertainty looms over how she will govern during the next five months.

Others believe the government, which needs to raise billions of dollars for debt payments, will take market-friendly steps such as overhauling the discredited INDEC National Statistics Bureau that economists say has underreported inflation and exaggerated growth for two years.

Even though the Central Bank is expected to maintain its policy of preventing sharp fluctuations in the currency, the peso weakened last week as Argentines, accustomed to periodic economic crises, bought dollars, worried the election might lead to political instability.

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