MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine opposition gets most votes in primaries of two main electoral districts

Del Sel celebrates victory next to his political mentor Buenos Aires mayor and presidential hopeful Mauricio Macri

Argentine opposition parties came ahead in the regional primaries for governors held on Sunday in two important electoral districts, Santa Fe and Mendoza. Argentina is holding general elections next October but the law makes mandatory the open, simultaneous and mandatory primaries, PASO, which also help to give an idea of the electoral map and political feeling of public opinion.

 The definitive results show that in Santa Fe province the conservative grouping of Buenos Aires mayor and presidential hopeful Mauricio Macri, PRO came out first, considered a surprise, while in Mendoza an alliance of anti-Kirchner forces clearly defeated the incumbent aligned with Cristina Fernandez.

With 100% of votes counted, the PRO candidate, humorist Miguel del Sel garnered 28,4% of votes cast, defeating the provincial incumbent Civic and Social Front by a slight difference since they obtained 28,1%. A distant third place was for the Kirchnerite Victory Front that managed 19.3%.

“What this result marks is an option for change that is growing in public opinion” said Mauricio Macri on assessing the results of his ally, Miguel del Sel.

Argentine cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez however downplayed Macri's PRO advance arguing that in Santa Fe “we have a technical tie”.

Meantime in Mendoza province, currently ruled by an ally of Cristina Fernandez, an opposition alliance headed by Alfredo Cornejo, under the banner Front for Change in Mendoza, garnered 44.91% of the vote compared to the 24.5% for Adolfo Bermejo, the Kirchnerite candidate.

In total 3.8 million registered voters turned out in the two provinces, which are two of the five provinces with most population behind Buenos Aires province, Buenos Aires City and Cordoba.

The governors' elections are scheduled for June 14. The first governor's primary took place in the province of Salta, to the north of Argentina and the Kirchnerite Victory's Front received the most votes.

Argentina' presidential election will be held 25 October including a partial renewal of the Legislative.