Argentine President Cristina Fernandez candidate for the 27 October mid term election in the crucial Buenos Aires province is trailing by eight points his main rival, Sergio Massa who is leading with 41.2% of vote intention according to the latest public opinion poll released by Poliarquía, one of the country’s most respected pollsters.
While Argentine presidential spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro confirmed that President Cristina Fernández evolves favourably and is “in good spirits”, the political debate on Wednesday has centred on Vice-president and acting president Amado Boudou whom the opposition argue should not lead the country given his questionable credentials and mounting legal problems
With less than a month for Argentina’s mid term elections the opposition to President Cristina Fernandez in the province of Buenos Aires, the largest and crucial electoral circuit clearly leads in public opinion polls and continues to advance over the primary results of August.
In an extremely aggressive speech in the aftermath of primaries defeat, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez blasted the media for misinterpreting electoral results, charged against the Mayor of Tigre Sergio Massa who was the big winner on Sunday, pressed for full commitment from her allies and promised more of the same in support of the ‘socially inclusive model’.
Argentina’s Sunday primary was the worst election result for Kirchnerism since they first arrived to office in 2003, almost thirty percentage points below the 54% of Cristina Fernandez re-election in 2011 writes Rosendo Fraga, Argentine historian and political analyst.
President Cristina Fernandez Victory Front managed to remain as the leading political force nationwide on Sunday’s congressional primaries but her opponents emerged exceptionally strong in the all-important province of Buenos Aires and the other main districts of the country, to the extent that some political analysts anticipate the beginning of the end of the ten years of Kirchnerism.
On Sunday Argentina will go to the polls to select their candidates for the country’s upcoming October legislative elections. Though it may seem a trivial democratic chapter, the open, mandatory and simultaneous primaries will in fact be the first step in an election that is likely to prove critical to Argentina and most probably a referendum on President Cristina Fernandez’ administration.
Next Sunday the Argentine electorate will be participating in the different parties’ primaries ahead of the mid term October ballot, which could signal the beginning of the end of the Kirchner decade. The event is identified as PASO, open, simultaneous and mandatory primaries.
Five weeks ahead of primaries and three months away from mid term congressional election, public opinion polls indicate that President Cristina Fernandez could be heading to a serious defeat, particularly in the province of Buenos Aires, which with 37% of the national vote is decisive for any victory pretension.