MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's ruling party retains Lower House majority

“Thanks to each of the La Rioja men and women from La Rioja for honoring me with the commitment to represent them,” Deputy-elect Herrera tweeted.

Argentina's ruling coalition Everybody's Front (Frente de Todos - FdT) finally retained a majority within the Lower House after vote-counting in the province of La Rioja granted it the two seats still in doubt.

According to these final results, the FdT would remain the House of Deputies' first minority with 118 seats after Ricardo Herrera and Gabriela Pedrali were declared winners Thursday in La Rioja. “The historic victory was confirmed,” provincial government advisor Miguel Ángel Zárate broke the news on Twitter.

Opposition parties had claimed they were just 75 votes short of winning the second seat in dispute, which would have left the FdT and former President Mauricio Macri's Together for a Change (Juntos por el Cambio - JxC) with 117 seats each.

However, this did not happen. The provincial ruling party came out to celebrate. After the announcement, Ricardo Herrera, second on the list, joined the victory messages: “Thanks to each of the La Rioja men and women from La Rioja for honouring me with the commitment to represent them,” Deputy-elect Herrera tweeted.

La Rioja's outcome brought some sort of relief to the ruling party, after having lost a decisive majority of its own at the Senate after Sunday's elections.

President Alberto Fernández had called on called the opposition Wednesday to dialogue after the electoral result, but at the same time, he said that “if Macri doesn't want to talk, let him stay with his friends doing business.” Fernández baffled everyone Sunday with a speech in which he spoke of “triumph” and called for celebration.

La Rioja's UCR (a party blended into the JxC coalition) had cited irregularities in the elections but eventually conceded defeat, it was reported.