MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Duhalde ready to resign

With barely a hundred days in office and a meager 14% public opinion support, while 49% of Argentines presumably want new elections, according to private polls, Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde said he was willing to move aside if Congress requested him.

Mr. Duhalde reached power last January after having been chosen by a Legislative Assembly following street rioting that deposed two governments in December and left 30 people dead.

When Mr. Duhalde took office he had a 29% support, but unable to solve mounting economic and financial problems, with Argentina in its fourth straight year of recession, rocketing unemployment, and 45% of Argentines below the poverty line, his time seems to be rapidly running out.

"I have a mandate from a parliamentary government. If Congress is not satisfied, it will have to elect a new president. I was not elected by the Argentine people", said president Duhalde, who actually lost to former president De la Rúa in December 1999 general elections.

However Mr. Duhalde underlined he was not sure a potential successor would be willing to take over in current circumstances.

There are growing pressures for Mr. Duhalde to leave government before December 2003, --as he promised on taking office--, and call early elections.

"If the majority believes this is the solution, I don't think it's the solution. It would be very irresponsible if I left Argentina in the middle of all this turbulence, you can't leave a country adrift while waiting for new elections", argued Mr. Duhalde.

But if the situation improved, if Argentina faced calmer waters, "out of the turbulence, maybe towards the end of the year or the beginning of next year we can have an early election so what is needed can be done".