MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's eyes fixed on Misiones referendum

Voters in northern Argentina will be electing Sunday 35 members of a controversial Constituent Assembly that is tasked beforehand with reforming one article of the provincial Constitution and thus opening the way for the Argentine politics temptation of Executive “indefinite or perpetual re-election”.

The referendum is sponsored by Carlos Rovira, governor of the impoverished province of Misiones, bordering with Paraguay and Brazil, where patronizing, unabashedly using government resources and rigging elections are common practice.

The leading candidate of the ruling party for the Constituent Assembly is Viviane Rovira, member of the provincial cabinet and cousin of the governor who runs the province as a family fief and is currently aligned with President Nestor Kirchner's political project of transversal public opinion blend. This means in the underdeveloped provinces of Argentina political support for President Kirchner's plans in exchange for generous public works funds.

In spite of the fact that Misiones political weight is limited Sunday's vote has gained the headlines of Buenos Aires press because if the experiment is "successful" and governors' perpetual election is incorporated to the political bible, it could open the way for other "tempted" governors from more electoral important provinces and possibly even a long term project at federal level in Buenos Aires.

However the initiative with open backing from the Kirchner administration, (posters show Rovira and Kirchner smiling together), is facing strong grass roots and middle class resistance, under the leadership of Iguazú's city popular bishop Monsignor Joaquin Piña who with the dispensation of the Vatican has rallied a significant public opinion movement, United Front for Dignity.

Short on resources, with no food baskets to distribute or job or mini credit promises to offer or the efficient provincial police logistics, and only strong in the urban areas, the United Front for Dignity has nevertheless attracted national attention given the bullying tactics of Rovira's and his groups of goons.

The latest of the tactics was a plan discovered by the local press, to distribute among followers, (and Paraguayans from across the border) an estimated 30.000 rigged voting IDs with no pictures and denying access to the Electoral Registry to the opposition and independent groups. As a result Buenos Aires media have sent teams to cover the event which public opinion polls indicate, --if they can be trusted?a very tight race with minimum difference.

With just a few hours to balloting, "the electoral climate in the province is strange" said Laura Alonso executive director of the leading anti-corruption NGO Poder Ciudadano (People's Power), the Argentine chapter of Transparency International.

"The lack of individual freedom, strong abuse by the provincial administration in the use of public resources leading to political patronage and the violation of provincial legislation ? in terms of not unveiling public works in the month prior to an election" are some of the facts highlighted by Ms Alonso.

At this rate "voters in Misiones will have to hug the ballot boxes in Sunday's election to stop the provincial government from committing fraud", she added.

All this intimidating atmosphere in a province where the government is the main employer plus a couple last minute "accidental" torching of two village churches, have not prevented, --in the closing leg of the election trail-- Interior Minister Alberto Fernandez from praising governor Rovira and his administration's performance, plus attacking the opposition for its negative tactics and "outside" interference.

This obviously in direct reference to Monsignor Piña, who in his eighties, has clearly established he's not involved in "party politics" but rather "institutional politics", basically to ensure democratic practices and governance with rotation in the Executive office thus preventing the enthronization of a family or political group which can easily occur under the current circumstances.

But the Argentine government irritation with the church's participation goes deeper than the Misiones picture. With no effective or solid political or Congressional opposition, such is the all embracing talent and purse of the Kirchner administration, the powerful Catholic Church has been forced into the role calling for Argentines "to live as brothers".

"For too long Argentines have been fighting Argentines, since independence we've been fighting among ourselves, it's time to live as brothers", repeats Buenos Aires Cardinal Bergoglio, a strong respected voice among Argentine public opinion, which does not necessarily converge with the radical revisionism and human rights approach of the Kirchner couple.

Mr. Kirchner's 2007 re-election plans or the First Lady Senator Cristina Kirchner alternative candidacy, are not at stake or endangered by the Church's position but it can be seen as irritating and even interpreted as provocative.

President Kirchner's "soldiers who dig into the past" have tried to unearth documents on the Argentine Catholic Church's tepid commitment towards human rights when the military regimes and have even attempted to show Cardinal Bergoglio (a papal candidate) "passively" involved in the disappearance of two radical Jesuits, but to no avail.

Dirty tricks, mud slinging and corruption allegations aside, Misiones 700.000 voters on Sunday will be performing an anticipation of what can be expected politically in a most challenging 2007 for Argentina.