MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Opposition candidate wins gubernatorial elections in Argentine province of Chubut

Aged 35, Torres became the youngest-ever governor-elect in the Patagonian province

Ignacio Torres of the opposition Together for Change (Juntos por el Cambio - JxC) alliance finally won Sunday's gubernatorial elections in the Argentine province of Chubut with 35.71% of the votes, edging Arriba Chubut's Juan Pablo Luque, who collected 34.11% and would not admit defeat until Monday.

Torres, who at age 35 became the youngest-ever governor-elect, received 116,432 votes and Luque 111,203, with 100% of the polling stations counted.

“I salute Ignacio Torres for his victory as Governor of Chubut. Having concluded the provisional count at 100%, and the difference being 1.6%, it is an act of democratic health and institutional quality to recognize the result,” Luque said on social media.

Meanwhile, Torres said that regarding the upcoming Simultaneous, Open, and Mandatory Primary (PASO) elections pitting Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Roodríguez Larreta against former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich within JxC “We must leave behind the chicanery and give a message of unity.” He would not side with either candidate and insisted the primaries must be a rivalry and not a war.

Torres' win on Sunday put an end to 20 years of Peronist rule in the Patagonian province. It was also the third consecutive defeat for the national government of President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) in the run-up to the August 13 primaries.

“From the symbolic point of view, it is very strong, it is to give a message of unity a few days before the PASO. It is a possible and healthy photo, at a time when the citizens want us together,” said Torres in a TV interview on Monday.

The future governor also underlined the importance of “The battle we had to fight against the ruling party” over the differences between Bullrich and Rdríguez Larreta, which “speaks of the maturity of the space.”

“We have to leave aside the unproductive chicanery,” he added.

“The economic reality leads us to make the changes that need to be made quickly but in the face of the citizens. It is necessary to tell things, to explain, to be honest, to show the state we are receiving. We must learn from our mistakes. To recover the trust of the citizens, which today is broken, and this is transversal to all political spaces,” he also pointed out.

“Whoever wins, the teams will be amalgamated to be able to have the same development agenda for Argentina and to be sustained in time. We have to get out of this pendulum country, where every 4 years we shuffle again. We must draw up a serious agenda once and for all,” he added.

Libertarian Javier Milei's candidate César Treffinger finished third in Sunday's elections with 13.18% (42,969) of the votes. Turnout stood at 69.28%.