Miguel Angel Pichetto was born in Buenos Aires and moved to the Patagonian province of Río Negro early in his career. He was first elected in 1983 as a Councilor of Sierra Grande, then mayor (85/87) and later a provincial lawmaker.
Argentina's main opposition party suffered a split on Wednesday after an estimated fifteen of its lawmakers quit, party leaders admitted, handing a boost to newly-elected President Mauricio Macri's hopes of pushing his legislative agenda through Congress. In effect, Macri's political alliance in the Lower House becomes the majority grouping.
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.
Argentina president Cristina Fernandez has suspended her attendance to the G20 summit in Turkey to campaign for the incumbent presidential candidate, Daniel Scioli, ahead of the 22 November runoff, when he confronts opposition hopeful Mauricio Macri, the big surprise of the electoral dispute.
The Argentine people on Sunday said they don't want continuity commented third ranked Sergio Massa who obtained 21.34% of ballots and is bound to become kingmaker in the 22 November runoff between Daniel Scioli and Mauricio Macri. Whoever wins will be putting an end to twelve years of Kirchnerism which on Sunday received an unexpected and surprising trashing.
Argentina's presidential runoff candidates have agreed to a debate scheduled to take place on 15 November, a week before voting day. Incumbent Victory Front candidate Daniel Scioli, and Let’s Change (Cambiemos) contender Mauricio Macri agreed to hold the debate on November 15 at 21:00 hours, at Buenos Aires University Law School.
Keen to avoid any kind of turmoil, Argentina's high electoral court called on all the parties running in the presidential election on Sunday to be prudent with their public statements on election night and to wait for a clear trend in the results before making any kind of comments that could affect the vote.
Argentine presidential candidate Mauricio Macri who is running second in opinion polls, defended not having reached an agreement with the Renewal Front's Sergio Massa, (third in the polls) because otherwise incumbent Daniel Scioli would have reached 45% of vote intention which seals any chance of a runoff a month later.
Next October 25 Argentines will be voting for a new president but also to renew half of all seats (257) in the Lower House and one third of seats in the Senate. This means that more than fifty percent of the 130 seats available currently belonging to the ruling Victory Front (FpV) of Cristina Fernandez as the “first minority” within the legislature, will be disputed.
Argentine incumbent candidate absence from Sunday's presidential debate has not altered the electoral landscape for next 25 October, according to the latest public opinion polls released in Buenos Aires. On Sunday night Daniel Scioli did not show up to the debate with all presidential contenders, particularly Mauricio Macri and Sergio Massa, the two closest challengers.