Voters choose centre-left Fernandez as president
BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s Peronists celebrated their return to power after incumbent President Mauricio Macri conceded defeat in a dramatic election that likely swung the country back to the centre-left, saw the return of a divisive former president and threatened to rattle financial markets.
As investors nervously eyed yesterday’s market opening, thousands of jubilant supporters of Alberto Fernandez and his vice presidential running mate, ex-president Cristina Fernandez, waved sky-blue and white Argentine flags and chanted “We’re coming back! We’re coming back!’’
“Today, Alberto is the president of all Argentines,’’ Cristina Fernandez told supporters, some of whom brandished tattoos with her image and the image of her late husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner.
Late on Sunday night, authorities said Mr Fernandez had 48.1% of the votes compared to 40.4% for Mr Macri, with almost 97% of the votes counted.
He needed 45% support, or 40% support with a 10 percentage point lead, over the nearest rival to avoid a runoff vote on Nov 24. No official winner has yet been declared.
The election was dominated by concerns over the country’s economic woes and rising poverty, with voters rejecting austerity measures that Mr Macri insisted were needed to revive the struggling economy.
“The only thing that concerns us is that Argentines stop suffering once and for all,’’ Mr Fernandez told the crowd.
The 60-year-old lawyer said he would need the support of Mr Macri’s administration to reconstruct what he called the inherited “ashes’’ of Argentina.
“We’re back and we’re going to be better!’’ he said.
Earlier in the evening, Mr Macri told disappointed supporters that he had called Mr Fernandez to congratulate him and invited him for a breakfast chat yesterday at the presidential palace.
“We need an orderly transition that will bring tranquillity to all Argentines because the most important thing is the well-being of all Argentines,’’ Mr Macri said.
Argentina’s inflation rate is one of the highest in the world, nearly one-third of Argentines are poor and its currency has plunged under Mr Macri, who came into power in 2015 with promises to boost South America’s second-largest economy and one of the world’s top grains suppliers.
When Mr Macri did surprisingly poorly in August party primaries, which are seen as a barometer of candidate popularity, stocks plunge and the peso depreciated on the possibility of a return to the interventionist economic
policies of Cristina Fernandez, who governed from 2007 to 2015.
Observers fear the same could happen yesterday.
Argentina’s Central bank said early yesterday that it would limit the amount of dollars that people can buy amid growing worries of a loss of foreign exchange following Mr Macri’s loss.