MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Provincial election confirms support for Kirchner's project

The elected governor of the Argentine province that has speared the dispute with Uruguay over the construction of a pulp mill on a shared border river, ratified he will follow instructions from Buenos Aires and keep to the trail of the current governor.

Sergio Urribarri, considered Entre Rios Governor Jorge Busti most trusted man promised to follow on his mentor's steps and praised President Nestor Kirchner as the man who reinstated "social justice in Argentina and will lead us to a new Argentina". Uruguay and Argentina have been at odds over the construction by Finland's Botnia of a pulp mill in Fray Bentos on the east side of the river Uruguay, which acts as a natural border between neighboring countries, but residents and environmentalists from the city of Gualeguaychu in the province of Entre Rios claim the plant contaminates and will damage the environment and kill the city's tourism industry. To protest and demanding an end to the construction or relocation of the plant, they have been blocking bridges leading to Uruguay In the controversy Uruguay is backed by the World Bank that has loaned money for the project and the European Union supports Finland's clean private sector investment. Argentina claims Uruguay has ignored the 1975 River Uruguay joint administration treaty and has taken the case to the International Court of The Hague. Uruguay has refused direct negotiations over the dispute until the blockades are definitively lifted but President Kirchner who has not managed to convince picketers to giver up their protest has said "he would not act his own people". In this scenario the Sunday election of Mr Urribarri confirms President Kirchner and Governor Busti's approach to the dispute which is an end to the pickets and direct negotiations with Uruguay with the purpose of relocating the plant. This could be further reinforced if as vote counting suggests, even by a thin margin, the next mayor of Gualeguaychu is a man of Busti, and not one of the leaders of the picketers who distrust the Kirchner-Busti approach fearing a half way understanding and not the radical solution they have been forcing for months on end with the pickets. Although Entre Rios is a small province in the Argentine context, --an electoral roll of 860.000â€"it was a sweet victory for President Kirchner and his grand project of a new ruling party to confirm his reelection aspirations --or Mrs Kirchner's firstâ€"next October. Urribari run on Kirchner's "Victory Front" ticket and according to preliminary results (98% of valid votes) managed 47% of votes and 20 points ahead of his runner up. Urribarri who will be taking office next December 10, promised "a prudent administration, a balanced budget and an open dialogue spirit". "The Victory Front is the most plural force ever conceived in democratic Argentina", said Urribarri who revealed he campaigned all over the province when he could have easily exploited "the prestige of President Kirchner and governor Busti".