What are the main drawbacks of the Argentine presidential candidates, ahead of 22 November runoff and following their exposure in last Sunday's debate, is the question a Buenos Aires pollster has tried to unveil, and how much could they in effect influence Sunday's vote.
Sergio Massa, the third contender in the Argentine presidential dispute and who did not make it to the runoff last 25 October, but managed 21% of ballots, some five million votes, compared to incumbent Daniel Scioli's 37% and Mauricio Macri's 34%, has been very careful in advancing whom he would support or recommend to vote on Sunday 22 November.
Argentina's Sunday debate between the two presidential hopefuls has widened the gap, which means the mayor of Buenos Aires City, Mauricio Macri could win the runoff on 22 November by more than ten points over incumbent Daniel Scioli, according to political analyst Jorge Giacobbe.
Argentine political analyst Graciela Römer.said there was no clear winner at Sunday's presidential debate between incumbent Daniel Scioli and opposition candidate Mauricio Macri, which nevertheless broke television audience ratings, similar to those of last year's World Cup final between Argentina and Germany.
With a repeat of their respective campaign strategies, not much content, and less replies Argentina's presidential candidates, incumbent Daniel Scioli and opposition hopeful Mauricio Macri debated during 75 minutes in four main blocks following clearly established rules of two minutes presentations and one minute question and answer.
There is an 8% of voters who decide on ballot day whom they prefer and will support, and they definitively decide the election, even more when it's a runoff, according to Jorge Giacobbe an Argentine political pollster and analyst.
Sunday's presidential debate in Argentina will most probably concentrate on economic policy mainly for two reasons: one that the current system with a dollar clamp, export duties, heavy influence of the government and wild spending has the economy on the verge of collapse; but the option of orthodox policies with drastic cuts in spending, salaries and possibly jobs and consumption is also seen as fearsome.
The recently elected members of Argentina’s new congress will be taking the oath on 3 December, and numbers show that the current coalition of president Cristina Fernandez, Victory Front, will retain the first minority in the Lower House, while it will enjoy a comfortable majority in the Senate.
The director of one of the most reliable pollster organization in Argentina anticipated that the 22 November presidential runoff is still an open race despite the fact the incumbent candidate Daniel Scioli is running several points behind his rival and opposition candidate Mauricio Macri.
Argentina's former Secretary of Culture José Nun said that current poverty in the country is similar to that which preceded the 2001/02 crisis, and underlined that he would never vote for the presidential incumbent candidate Daniel Scioli, who was handpicked by outgoing head of state Cristina Fernandez.