Misiones, San Juan go to polls while Peronists regroup
San
Juan and Misiones will be kicking off tomorrow a hyperactive electoral month in which no less than 10 provinces will be going to the polls (together w it h t he PA SO primar y) , quite apart from the definition of national alliances and candidacies in the course of the month starting today.
Of the two provinces voting tomorrow, the stakes look higher in Misiones. There Senator Humberto Schiavoni, the national party chairman of President Mauricio Macri’s centre-right PRO, is challenging the entrenched provincial government (in the person of LieutenantGovernor Oscar Herrera A huad since Governor Hugo Passalacqua is barred from seeking reelection) with the added risk that Macri’s Radical allies cannot be blamed for defeat this time, as has been an option in all the provincial elections so far
In San Juan Peronist Governor Sergio Uñac seems assured of re-election after his PASO primary landslide on March 31. On that occasion Uñac thrashed Marcelo Orrego heading the Con Vos list backing Macri with 55.74 percent of the vote as against 32.18 percent.
Yet Uñac’s likely victor y cannot easily be projected beyond his province since he has always tried to keep astride of polarisation – cordial at times to Macri and cool until recently toward Macri’s archrival and predecessor Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, he also offered himself earlier this year as a runningmate for presidential dark horse Roberto Lavagna.
Uñac is not alone in his ambiguous stance among Peronist governors – while only four of the 19 non-Cambiemos governors accompanied Fernández de Kirchner’s return to Justicialist Party meetings after years of absence on May 14, the changes in the political landscape in just the last fortnight leave recently re-elected Córdoba Governor Juan Schiaretti almost alone in his clear support for the Alernativa Federal non-Kirchnerite Peronist grouping which once united most of his colleagues. Meanwhile outgoing Salta Governor Juan Manuel Urtubey confirmed his presidential candidacy within Alternativa Federal..