MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tierra del Fuego governor re-elected in run-off; solid support for Cristina Fernandez

Fabiana Rios and Rosana Bertone both pledged support for Mrs. Kirchner

Tierra del Fuego incumbent governor Fabiana Rios was re-elected on Sunday’s run-off with 50.2% of the vote beating Rosana Bertone who obtained 48.9%, according to the latest official results.

Although both candidates have pledged adherence to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, it was only Ms Bertone who received the official blessing since she accepted to run as a candidate for the Victory Front. Ms Rios kept to her original Patagonia Social party.

Earlier, candidate Bertone had made fraud accusations after she allegedly found several third-party ballots where the Victory Front ballots should be. However, the Electoral Court assured that no inconveniences were registered during the election process.

Bertone asked the more than 112,000 voters to “be careful and denounce any irregularities.”

On the other hand, the head of Tierra del Fuego Provincial Electoral Court, Luis Bechis, stated that the elections had run “normally in the whole province as having only two tickets simplifies everything.”

A week ago in the first round Bertone won the election with 29,750 votes, a little over 40%, short of the 50% required by Tierra del Fuego province law.

Ríos, the incumbent governor, running for the Patagonia Social Party (PSP), won 23,383 votes (32.55%), and spent the last week aiming to convince all those who voted with blank slips, which constituted 11.33% of the vote in last week’s elections.

The governor also invested time into getting more Tierra del Fuego residents to vote. Last Sunday’s elections saw only 66.2% turning out to vote.

The seven days between the initial election and today’s runoff have seen the candidates exchange accusations.

Bertone claimed that there had been a “dirty campaign” with “mails, text messages and threats to public employees,” while Ríos not only denied the allegations but also accused her opponent of “refusing to debate or exchange ideas.”

Despite the President’s preference for Bertone, Ríos is also considered to be close to Fernández de Kirchner following the incumbent governor’s decision to break away from her previous party ARI, which was led at the time by current presidential candidate Elisa Carrió (Civic Coalition), for the 2007 elections.

The official name of the most extreme south Argentine province is Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands, which includes insular territories (Falklands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands) under dispute with the UK.