A general election (i.e. both presidential and legislative) was held in Argentina on 25 October 2015, with a second round of voting between the two leading candidates held on 22 November since neither succeeded in securing a majority.[1] This follows primary elections which were held on 9 August 2015. The previous Argentine presidential election took place on 23 October 2011, whilst legislative elections were last held on 27 October 2013.[2]
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was re-elected in 2011. As the Constitution of Argentina does not allow more than two consecutive terms, several politicians from the Front for Victory (FPV) speculated about a constitutional amendment to allow unlimited re-elections.[3] This idea[4] was heavily resisted by the opposition parties, and the FPV could not reach the required two-thirds majority in Congress. The mid-term elections in 2013 ended the FPV's hope for a constitutional amendment after they failed to win the necessary supermajority.[5]
The election of the president was carried out using the ballotage system, a modified version of the two-round system in which a candidate would win if they received 45% of the vote, or if they received 40% of the vote and were 10 percentage points ahead of the second-place candidate.[6] Voting was compulsory for citizens between 18 and 70 years old.[7]Suffrage was also extended to 16- and 17-year-olds, though without compulsory voting.[8]
Parties and coalitions provided their own ballot papers, which voters placed in sealed envelope. However, voters were able to cut ballot papers up and place different sections from different parties inside the envelope if they wanted to vote for different candidates or lists for different posts. Being under a Federal system, it is possible for different provinces to use different systems. In Buenos Aires and Salta electronic voting machines were used to print out a single unified ballot, with voters able to select different candidates and parties on a touch screen. Other municipalities such as Bariloche opted for a non-electronic single unified ballot.[10] Opposition candidates, including Sergio Massa, Mauricio Macri and Margarita Stolbizer called for the nationwide implementation of a unified ballot and/or electronic voting, though Massa in particular was more cautious, saying it was more realistic for such a system to be implemented by 2017.[11] The authority in charge of regulating elections rejected changing the system within 2015 since they claimed it would be too short term to implement the changes and explain to the public how the new system works.[12]
Initially, the FPV had several pre-candidates to the presidency, but only Daniel Scioli and Florencio Randazzo had a good reception in the opinion polls. Scioli was resisted by factions of the party that did not consider him truly loyal to Kirchner. All the minor candidates resigned when Kirchner asked them to do so.[14] Randazzo resigned as well some weeks before the primary elections, leaving Scioli as the sole precandidate of the FPV.[15] Randazzo did not accept to run for governor of the Buenos Aires province, which had primary elections between minister Aníbal Fernández and Julián Domínguez.[16] Fernández won the local primary elections.
Sergio Massa, a former Kirchnerist chief of cabinet, won the 2013 elections with the Renewal Front and had a support in the populous Buenos Aires province. However, most of the mayors who had left the FPV to join him returned to the FPV, and he gradually declined in the opinion polls.[17] He created the coalition United for a New Alternative, joined by the governor of Córdoba José Manuel de la Sota. Adolfo Rodríguez Saá refused to join the coalition, and ran in a separate party instead.[18]
The primary elections were held on 9 August. Mauricio Macri and Sergio Massa won the internal elections of their respective coalitions. Daniel Scioli received 38% of the vote, followed by Macri with 30% and Massa with 20%.[22]
Several controversies took place during the time of the elections, or related to the elections themselves.
The primary elections and some local elections had scandals of Electoral fraud. There was a frequent theft of ballot papers from the polling places. State-owned Correo Argentino collects the results of each school and sends them to a centralized location for their global count; there have been reports of inconsistencies between the results signed in the schools and those informed by Correo Argentino. Tucumán even had a case of people burning ballot boxes, which led to several demonstrations at Plaza Independencia. There was policial repression on those demonstrations, leading to further scandals.
Journalist Jorge Lanata aired an interview with a prisoner sentenced for the 2008 Triple crime, who claimed that Aníbal Fernández was the mastermind of that crime. This increased the tensions between Fernández and Domínguez, as Fernández considered that Domínguez helped Lanata somehow. Scioli stayed away from both precandidates to governor in the last week before the primary elections, which were won by Fernández.[23]
Ariel Velázquez, a sympathizer of the Radical Civic Union, was shot in his house in Jujuy, after taking part in the political campaign. He died two weeks later, and the Tupac Amaru organization (led by Kirchnerite Milagro Sala) was blamed for it. President Cristina Kirchner claimed that he was not a Radical, which was refuted by his family.[23]
Several cities in the Buenos Aires Province suffered big floods during the primary elections, and the following week. The flood affected 10,000 people. Daniel Scioli had left to Italy at that moment, and made a rushed return. Mauricio Macri considered it a result of poor urban planning under Scioli's provincial government, and compared it with the lack of flood in Buenos Aires during the same storm, which had undergone flood prevention works under his leadership. Scioli accused users of social networks to plot to damage his public image, and claimed that he has all of them identified.[23]
Primary elections were held on 9 August 2015; any party receiving less than 1.5% of the vote would not be allowed to contest the full elections. Scioli got the 38.41% of the vote, and nearly 8 percentage points of advantage over Macri; both figures would have placed him near to avoid ballotage in the main elections, but not enough. Sergio Massa stayed in the third place and kept an important number of votes. Both Macri and Massa defeated with ease their rivals in the primary elections; Scioli, Stolbizer and Rodríguez Saá were the single candidates of their respective parties. Nicolás del Caño defeated Altamira, and became the unexpected candidate for the Worker's Left Front.
Opinion polls previous to the result suggested that Scioli would win by a wide margin, and might even be able to avoid a ballotage. However, the final results showed only a narrow lead for Scioli, with his 37.08% just ahead of Macri's 34.15%, leading to new elections on 22 November. Massa got the third place, with 21% of the vote, and both candidates sought to secure the voters that had voted for him. Both candidates were polarized on the opinion about the presidency of Cristina Kirchner: Scioli proposes to keep most of the Kirchnerite policies, and Macri to change them. In the legislative elections, the FPV lost the majority of the chamber of deputies, but keeps the majority of the senate.[24]
Scioli declined to attend the first leaders' debate previous to the elections, which was held between the other five candidates instead. When the ballotage was confirmed, he asked Macri for a presidential debate between both candidates, which was accepted.[25] Two debates were being organized: one by the NGO "Argentina debate", and another one by the TV news channel Todo Noticias. Macri preferred to take part in a single debate with Scioli, and opted for the one organized by Argentina Debate.[26]
Macri critizised Scioli for a negative campaigning launched by the Front for Victory.[27] Several politicians and state institutions run by the FPV released messages warning about terrible things that may happen if Macri was elected president.[28] Scioli claims that it is a campaign to encourage public awareness.[29] It is rumored that the campaign may been suggested by the Brazilian João Santana, who organized a similar one in Brazil during the ballotage of Dilma Rousseff and Aécio Neves.[30]
The ballotage was held on November 22. Daniel Scioli accepted his defeat when 70% of the votes were counted; the provisional results were 53% and 47% at that moment.[31] The distance between both candidates slowly reduced in the following hours, leading to a victory of a smaller margin for Macri than most exit polls suggested.[32] Nevertheless, His victory has ended the 12-years rule of Kirchnerism in the country.[33]
On the 25 October elections numerous provinces also elected governors, with the new ones beginning their terms on 10 December 2015. These provinces were Buenos Aires province, Catamarca, Chubut, Entre Ríos, Formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, Misiones, San Juan, San Luis and Santa Cruz, encompassing 11 of the country's 23 provinces. The other provinces elected governors in different days of 2015; the only exceptions were Corrientes and Santiago del Estero whose governors' terms were not due to finish in 2015.[66]
María Eugenia Vidal was elected governor of the populous Buenos Aires Province, defeating the controversial Aníbal Fernández; her victory influenced as well the growth of Macri in the presidential elections. Similarly, the unpopular Fernández may have subtracted non-Kirchnerite votes from Scioli.[66] The victory was considered significant given that Fernández is the incumbent Cabinet Chief of the Kirchner administration, and that Vidal is directly replacing Daniel Scioli's current post as governor of the province.[67] It is made more significant as she is the first female governor of the province, and the first non-Peronist governor since 1987. The Republican Proposal also retained the city of Buenos Aires, that elected Horacio Rodríguez Larreta as the new mayor.[66] The PRO stronghold had gone to a second round between Larreta and Martín Lousteau (also of the Cambiemos front, but not in the same party) after the Front for Victory's Mariano Recalde finished third.[68]Juan Schiaretti won the elections in Córdoba, and he is the single governor of the UNA ticket.[66] The socialist Miguel Lifschitz was elected governor of Santa Fe, after a controversial triple tie with the PJ and PRO. Carlos Verna was reelected governor of La Pampa.[66]
The votes in Entre Ríos had a slow count. During a week, the provisional results suggested that Gustavo Bordet may be the new governor of Entre Ríos, but Alfredo de Angeli claimed that the uncounted votes may turn the tide and make him the winner instead.[69] The final results were released on October 30, confirming the victory of Bordet. Hugo Passalacqua, vice governor of Maurice Closs was elected governor by a wide margin.[66]
Mendoza provided an early victory for the opposition, by the radical Alfredo Cornejo. Alberto Rodríguez Saá was elected governor of San Luis once again. The Front for Victory retained the provinces of San Juan and La Rioja, with Sergio Uñac and Sergio Casas.[66]
Lucía Corpacci was reelected in Catamarca. Juan Manuel Urtubey got an important victory in Salta against Romero, and kept the province for the FPV. The radical Gerardo Morales was elected governor of Jujuy, the first non-Peronist one since the return of democracy in 1983. He expects to have a tense relation with the populist Milagro Sala. Juan Luis Manzur was elected governor of Tucumán, but the denounces of electoral fraud became a national scandal. The elections were first declared null by local judge, and then ratified by the local Supreme Court. The case is currently held by the national Supreme Court.[66][70][71]
Despite the ruling Workers' party having supported Scioli during the campaign, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff congratulated Macri and invited him to a state visit "as soon as possible", while she is also set to attend Macri's inauguration as president. The pair have stated that improving bilateral relations between the two countries, as well as strengthening the Mercosur trade bloc.[72]
Ecuatorian president Rafael Correa congratulated Macri for his victory and wishing him "the best of luck". While commenting on the presidencies of the Kirchners, he stated that "12 years ago Argentina was reborn like a phoenix, after neoliberalism had left it in ashes" whilst thanking the incumbent Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.[73]
On November 23, Venezuela's opposition hailed Macri's presidential win in Argentina as a blow for leftists in Latin America and a good omen for their own duel with "Chavismo" in next month's parliamentary vote. "That was a big disappointment for Venezuela's ruling socialist "Chavismo" movement, which had a close political alliance with Fernandez."[74]
Spanish president Mariano Rajoy, who has a close relationship with Macri, congratulated him and invited him to carry out a state visit "as soon as possible", stating that he is confident that the new government will "lead this new stage with success" while offering "the necessary support to consolidate the historical ties of friendship, fraternity and cooperation". The relationship between Spain and Argentina had become increasingly tense under the presidency of Cristina Kirchner, particularly after the Renationalization of YPF in 2012.[75]
In a telegram to Macri, Russian Vladimir Putin expressed that he hopes that the two countries will continue to increase the "bilateral cooperation within diverse areas and the coordination of efforts to resolve current occurrences within the international agenda", adding that "the fundamental intesests of the people of Russia and Argentina contribute to guarantee the stamility and security of Latin America and the world", while reminding Macri that the countries had recently celebrated 130 years of diplomatic relations. Putin also made reference to the ongoing nuclear power and hydrocarbon extraction projects between the countries.[76]
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called Macri on the night of his victory and stated that he will meet soon with the new president to "open a new page of collaboration between the two countries". He also stated the historical and cultural ties between the two countries, stating that "it is the country with the largest presence of Italian citizens in the world", numbering some 900,000. The Cambiemos victory also provoked much reaction in the domestic Italian press.[77]
Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto stated that "Mexico will work with" Macri's government to strengthen "bilateral relations and the wellbeing of Latin America".[79]
^José Cano (UCR) denounced electoral fraud that may have benefited Manzur. The Supreme Court of Tucumán ratified the elections, but the case is still going on at the Supreme Court of Argentina
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