MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's Menem loses governor's race

Former Pte. Carlos Menem

Former President Carlos Menem was easily defeated by an incumbent governor of a western province on Sunday, ending a comeback bid by the 77-year-old who governed the country from 1989 to 1999.

With 93 percent of the vote counted late Sunday in La Rioja province, Gov. Luis Beder Herrera had 41 percent of the ballots. Menem, a conservative, free-market supporter who had used two terms as La Rioja governor as a springboard to the presidency and the helm of the Peronist party, placed a distant third with 22 percent. "We have won by a wide margin," said Beder Herrera, an ally of President Nestor Kirchner, to cheering supporters. Menem said "the voters have spoken and we, as democratic citizens, must heed them." Kirchner and others have blamed Menem's close alliance with the United States and adherence to Washington's policies for the 2002 economic crisis. Elected senator of La Rioja in 2005, Menem had talked about a comeback bid for the presidency but ran for governor instead