Ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli could win Argentina's presidential election in the first round, after an opinion poll published on Friday showed he had widened his lead over his closest rival. Scioli, the anointed candidate of President Cristina Fernandez, would win 41.3% of voters' support, including his share of projected undecided votes, the survey by Ricardo Rouvier & Associates showed. Second-placed mayor of Buenos Aires City, Mauricio Macri would secure 30.5%.
Brazil's popular but scandal-weary former leader Lula da Silva endorsed Argentina's ruling party presidential candidate on Wednesday, identifying Daniel Scioli's credentials with the political left, and hoping the current project “that began in 2003 is re-elected”. The former president was also full of praise for president Cristina Fernandez.
The Cristina Fernandez administration candidate Daniel Scioli, as anticipated, was the presidential hopeful with most votes in Argentina Sunday's open, simultaneous and mandatory primaries, (PASO), in which the different parties chose those who will lead them into the 25 October election to elect the head of the Executive, half the Lower House and a third of the Senate.
Electoral silence has started ahead of the PASO primary elections (Open Simultaneous, Mandatory Primaries) that will take place on Sunday when Argentines will cast their ballots to choose their candidates to compete in October’s general run, including the successor of president Cristina Fernandez.
Argentines will be going to the polls this Sunday to vote in the open, simultaneous, mandatory primaries (PASO) when the different parties will be choosing their one-candidate for the big prize on 25 October when the successor of Cristina Fernandez will be elected together with half of the Lower House (129 seats), a third of the Senate (24 seats) and 43 members for the Mercosur parliament.
Argentina's Victory Front presidential ticket of Daniel Scioli and Carlos Zannini is set to win the coming August PASO primary elections by almost 12 points over nearest challenger Mauricio Macri, a new poll published two weeks before the vote has predicted.
Argentina's current government presidential ticket for October's ballot, Daniel Scioli and Carlos Zannini has a solid lead of 18 points over its main competitor, the PRO party with hopefuls Mauricio Macri and Gabriela Michetti, according to the latest public opinion poll released by Aresco.
Saddled on eight years of Mauricio Macri as mayor of the city of Buenos Aires, his handpicked successor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, won on Sunday Argentina's capital mayoral election, but not with the sufficient margin to avoid a run-off vote later this month. The winner needed to break the 50% mark in order to avoid the second round, which will take place July 19.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez will not run for any office in this year's general elections, but she has set up supporters in key candidacies for the primaries in which 13 presidential hopefuls are participating. These include her two closest advisors since the death of her husband Nestor Kirchner and they are, son Maximo Kirchner, and Carlos Zannini, the Legal and Technical Secretary of the Executive.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez's governing bloc held onto control of Congress in Sunday's mid-term elections, but the results also confirmed the emergence of a new group of powerful leaders who with different messages (and non-messages) anticipated on that same night that their target it the presidential chair in 2015.