MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Buenos Aires set for mayoral poll

Mayor candidates Mauricio Macri and Daniel Filmus

Buenos Aires goes to the polls Sunday to elect its mayor in a runoff election, which the Argentine right- wing appears set to win and which could take wind out of the sails of the government ahead of the October 28 presidential election.

Voting is compulsory for citizens over the age of 18 in Argentina, and around 2.5 million people are expected at the polls in the country's capital, which lies at the heart of a 12-million- strong metropolis. Right-wing candidate Mauricio Macri, a businessman and president of the popular local football club Boca Juniors, obtained a great advantage over his rivals in the June 3 first round. Macri got 45 per cent of the vote, the same as national Education Minister Daniel Filmus (24 per cent) and incumbent left- wing Mayor Jorge Telerman (21 per cent) put together. The runoff will pit Macri against Filmus, the candidate favoured by left-wing Argentine President Nestor Kirchner. The minister has campaigned for the decisive election with the slogan 'Nothing is impossible,' but recent opinion polls indicate that he is likely to lose by up to 20-percentage points. Kirchner is a Peronist, and the capital's voters have often turned their backs on Peronist candidates. However, many analysts have said a very significant right-wing victory in Buenos Aires would reflect badly on the government ahead of this year's presidential election. The pro-Kirchner camp has not yet said who will be its candidate in the October 28 election, but the president has said 'it will be a male penguin or a female penguin.' The gender reference to an animal characteristic of southern Argentina, from which Kirchner himself hails, has led analysts to say he could be a candidate, or that his wife, Senator Cristina Fernandez, could run. In either case, opinion polls point to a likely victory by the ruling party.