MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Five million disregarded the polls.

In spite of the positive press reports and the Argentine government satisfaction with the Sunday election results that ensure a comfortable majority in Congress for president Nestor Kirchner, actually four million Argentines didn't bother to go to the polls and another million expressed their dissatisfaction.

Of the 13,6 million registered to vote last Sunday in the five districts, (Buenos Aires city, Buenos Aires province, Chaco, Santa Cruz and Jujuy), a record four million equivalent to 29,6% did not turn up at the voting stations.

Another million, 7,4% of the electorate, actually tore the ballots or annulled their votes, which together total over five million voters.

These percentages are far higher than last April when the presidential election and even during the Congressional election of October 2001 in the midst of the crisis that toppled president Fernando de la Rúa and had the "protest vote" in the centre of the political stage.

In the first round of the April presidential election, 22,39% didn't vote and 2,51% were described as "negative votes".

However on this occasion the "negative vote" was second in the province of Buenos Aires; in the Santa Cruz vote for the two federal Deputies "negative" was also runner up and in Jujuy province 34% of the electorate did not show up. Political analyst Rosendo Fraga argued three main causes for the poor showing in a country where voting is compulsory: first, "democracy has become routine and is no longer a novelty"; second, sanctions for not voting are "merely formal" and thirdly the "overall erosion of politics and institutions". Mr. Fraga said the tendency, "I believe will tend to increase".

In Buenos Aires province absenteeism reached 32% of the electorate equivalent to 2,9 million voters. Added to negative votes 13,16%, this means that 44% of the Buenos Aires province electoral roll did not choose any of the candidates for governor. Negative vote was even higher for the federal Deputies election.

In Mr. Kirchner's backyard Santa Cruz province, absenteeism and negative votes reached 35,6% of the electorate. In Jujuy province the combination totalled 38,9%; Chaco 30,38% and in the capital Buenos Aires, 29,6% of "porteños" didn't bother to vote in the mayor run-off and negative voting surpassed 5%.