No president-elect in Argentina

No president-elect in Argentina

Argentina’s next president will be chosen in a runoff election on Nov. 19, according to preliminary results released Sunday minutes before 10 p.m. local time in Buenos Aires (GMT -3).

 Economy Minister Sergio Massa received 35.9% of the vote, followed by La Libertad Avanza (LLA) Congressman Javier Milei (30.51%), who had emerged as the winner of the Aug. 13th Mandatory, Open and Simultaneous Preliminary Elections (PASO).

Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) of former President Mauricio Macri saw its candidate Patricia Bullrich with 23.61% of the vote. The governor of Córdoba, Juan Schiaretti, came in fourth with just over 7% of the vote, while leftist candidate Myriam Bregman, the only contender to have explicitly condemned Israel in its war against the Hamas terrorist group, barely reached 3% of the vote with about 77% of the polling stations counted.

Presidential Secretary Julio Vitobello praised the work of the National Electoral Board’s team, which made it possible to announce preliminary results before 10 p.m., as originally hoped.

Axel Kiciloff of the ruling Union por la Patria party was re-elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires, the largest district in the country, contributing significantly to Massa’s efforts.

In the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA), Macri’s cousin Jorge Macri reportedly fell just short of the 50% threshold needed to become the capital’s next mayor and would have to face UP’s Leandro Santoro (32% of the vote) in a runoff.

The candidates are yet to make their speeches. (New in progress)