MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A complicated election.

Santa Fe province, Argentina's fourth strongest electoral circumscription is going to the polls this Sunday becoming another testing ground for President Nestor Kirchner and the ruling Justicialista party.

At stake are the governorship, three federal Senators and ten federal Deputies, plus 69 provincial legislators of this very rich farmland with a population of just over 3 million.

President Kirchner is anxious to extend his political base as he has done in other regional elections, --with limited success--, and the Justicialista Party, appealing to electoral gimmicks, is running with three different governor candidates, fearing the advance of the popular Socialist Mayor of Argentina's second city Rosario Hermes Binner.

This has caused a proliferation of candidates, over 35,000, ballot options are three pages long, many heads of voting stations have resigned and there will be two different vote counting centres, for national and provincial candidates. Given this situation in rural areas with less than 35 polling stations, --26% of Santa Fe--, members of the Police have been authorized to act as polling officers.

Socialist Mr. Binner fearing the all powerful Justicialista party that has dominated the province for the last twenty years will fight to the very end is claiming fraud suspicions and election observers from the Organization of American States have arrived in Santa Fe for next Sunday.

However the three ruling party governor hopefuls running individually, will all accumulate votes for the Justicialismo, and could very well ensure the continuation of their dominance in the province.

President Kirchner is supporting a former governor Jorge Obeid; the outgoing popular governor and former Formula 1 pilot Carlos Reutemann is campaigning for his good friend Alberto Hammerly, and the third candidate is Héctor Cavallero.

Mr. Binner is ahead in the governor public opinion polls and to make things even more complicated, insists he has received encouraging messages from the Kirchner administration.

But just in case he's also running for the federal Senate and is second behind Mr. Reutemann, which should ensure him a seat in the Buenos Aires Congress if he can't make it to Government House.

In spite of the fact Santa Fe province has been traditionally a stronghold for the Justicialista Party, the improvisation and terrible handling of recent floods that left tens of thousands homeless and the corruption in delivering aid have seriously tarnished the image of the ruling party.

The Argentine press recalls that Santa Fe traditionally has been a "complicated" electoral province and in 1995 set a record: final definitive results took 38 days.