Argentine general election, 2007

Argentine general election, 2007
Argentina
October 28, 2007

 
Nominee Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Elisa Carrió Roberto Lavagna
Party Justicialist Party Support for an Egalitarian Republic Independent
(supported by UCRI)
Alliance Front for Victory Civic Coalition UNA
Home state Buenos Aires Province City of Buenos Aires City of Buenos Aires
Running mate Julio Cobos Rubén Giustiniani Gerardo Morales
States carried 21 CABA 1
Popular vote 8,651,066 4,401,981 3,229,648
Percentage 45.29% 23.04% 16.91%


President before election

Néstor Kirchner
FPV-PJ

Elected President

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
FPV-PJ

President Néstor Kirchner (2nd from right) backs winning Front for Victory candidates (from L to R)
Daniel Scioli (Governor), Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (President) and Julio Cobos (VP).

Argentina held national presidential and legislative elections on Sunday, October 28, 2007, and elections for provincial governors took place on staggered dates throughout the year. For the national elections, each of the 23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires are considered electoral districts. Voter turnout was 76.2%.

Background

This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Argentina
Foreign relations

Elections for a successor to President Néstor Kirchner were held in October. Kirchner had declined to run for a second term.

In addition to the President, each district elected a number of members of the Lower House (the Chamber of Deputies) roughly proportional to their population, and eight districts elected members to the Argentine Senate, where each district is entitled to three senators (two for the majority, one for the largest minority party). In most provinces, the national elections were conducted in parallel with local ones, whereby a number of municipalities elect legislative officials (concejales) and in some cases also a mayor (or the equivalent executive post). Each provincial election follows local regulations and some, such as Tucumán, hold municipal elections on other dates in the year.

According to the rules for elections in Argentina, to win the presidential election without needing a runoff round, a candidate needs either more than 45% of the valid votes, or more than 40% of the valid votes with a margin of 10 points from the runner-up. Following months of speculation, and despite high approval ratings, President Kirchner confirmed his decision to forfeit the 2007 race, and the ruling Front for Victory (FpV), a center-left Peronist Party, nominated the First Lady, Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, on July 19.[1] Acknowledging the support of a growing number of UCR figures ("K Radicals") to the populist policies advanced by Kirchnerism, the FpV nominated Mendoza Province Governor Julio Cobos as her running mate.[2]

The ideologically diverse field also included former Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna (who broke with Kirchner in late 2005, obtained the endorsement of the UCR, and ran slightly to the right of the FpV), Elisa Carrió (a center-left Congresswoman close to the Catholic Church),[3] and numerous conservatives and socialists; in all, fourteen candidates registered for the election. The UCR, for the first time since it first ran in a presidential campaign in 1892, joined a coalition (Lavagna's UNA) rather than nominate its own candidate.

The President, who had maintained high approval ratings throughout his term on the heels of a strong recovery in the Argentine economy, was beset by controversies during 2007, including Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno's firing of Graciela Bevacqua (the INDEC statistician overseeing inflation data), allegations of Planning Minister Julio de Vido's involvement in a Skanska bribery case, and the "suitcase scandal." These controversies, however, did not ultimately overshadow positive consumer sentiment and a generally high presidential job approval.[4]

The Front for Victory's candidate, Senator and First Lady Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, maintained a comfortable lead in polling during the campaign. Her opponents focused on denying her the vote share needed to avoid a runoff. However, with 13 challengers splitting the vote, Fernández won the first round decisively, with 45.3% of the valid votes, more than 22 percent ahead of runner-up Carrió. She won in every province or district except San Luis (won by Alberto Rodríguez Saá), Córdoba (won by Lavagna), and the City of Buenos Aires (won by Carrió). Carrió, who obtained 23%, made history as the first runner-up to another woman in a national election in the Americas.[3]

Presidential election results

 Summary of the 28 October 2007 Argentine presidential election results
Complete results (provincial breakdown available at the Interior Ministry web site).
Presidential candidate Vice-presidential candidate Party Votes %
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Julio Cobos Front for Victory Alliance 8,651,066 45.29
Elisa Carrió Rubén Héctor Giustiniani Civic Coalition Confederation 4,401,981 23.04
Roberto Lavagna Gerardo Rubén Morales An Advanced Nation (UNA) 3,229,648 16.91
Alberto Rodríguez Saá Héctor Maya Justice, Union and Liberty Front Alliance 1,458,955 7.64
Fernando Solanas Angel Francisco Cadelli Authentic Socialist Party 301,265 1.58
Ricardo López Murphy Esteban Bullrich Recreate for Growth 273,015 1.43
Jorge Omar Sobisch Jorge Asís Total 268,255 1.40
Movement for the United Provinces 152,419 0.80
Popular Union 69,079 0.36
Movement of Neighborhood Action 36,809 0.19
Movement for Dignity and Independence (MODIN) 9,948 0.05
Vilma Ripoll Héctor Bidonde Workers' Socialist Movement 142,421 0.75
Néstor Pitrola Gabriela Adriana Arroyo Workers' Party 116,564 0.61
José Alberto Montes Héctor Antonio Heberling PTS-MAS-IS Alliance 84,662 0.44
Luis Alberto Ammann Rogelio Deleonardi Broad Front Towards Latin American Unity Alliance 69,760 0.37
Raúl Castells Nina Pelozo Independent Movement of the Unemployed and the Retired (MIJD) 48,786 0.26
Gustavo Luis Breide Obeid Héctor Raúl Vergara Peoples Reconstruction Party 45,282 0.24
Juan Ricardo Mussa Bernardo Nespral Popular Loyalty Confederation 10,551 0.06
Total valid votes 19,102,211 100.00
Blank votes 1,330,885 6.44
Null votes 240,074 1.16
Total votes (turnout 76.31%) 20,673,170 100.00
Source: Interior Ministry


Presidential candidates

A total of 14 candidates were on the presidential ballot, although only 3 or 4 garnered statistically significant amounts of support in polls. The candidates were as follows:

Governors

The elections for governors took place in ten provinces in September, which were won in six provinces by Kirchner's Front for Victory. Hermes Binner was elected governor of Santa Fe, defeating Peronist Rafael Bielsa, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Pres. Néstor Kirchner. Binner thus became the first Socialist governor in Argentina's history and the first non-Justicialist elected governor of that province. Center-left Fabiana Ríos (ARI) became the first woman elected governor in Argentina, winning an upset in Tierra del Fuego Province, while the moderately conservative Mauricio Macri was elected Mayor of Buenos Aires (an office similar to governor) in June 2007.[5]

Corrientes Province and Santiago del Estero Province did not have elections for governors in 2007, as they had already taken place in 2005.

District Elected Governor Party % Runner-up Party %
Buenos Aires Daniel Scioli Front for Victory (FPV) 48.2 Margarita Stolbizer Civic Coalition 16.6
Catamarca Eduardo Brizuela del Moral Civic Social Front - FPV 52.6 Luis Barrionuevo Justicialist Party (JP) 37.6
Chaco Jorge Capitanich Justicialist 46.8 Ángel Rozas L Front for All (UCR) 46.6
Chubut Mario Das Neves Justicialist 76.7 Raúl Barneche UCR 13.5
City of Buenos Aires Mauricio Macri PRO 60.9 Daniel Filmus L Front for Victory (FPV) 39.1
Córdoba1 Juan Schiaretti Justicialist 37.2 Luis Juez Social and Civic Agreement 36.0
Entre Ríos Sergio Urribarri FPV 47.0 Gustavo Cusinato UCR 19.9
Formosa Gildo Insfrán R Justicialist 76.0 Gabriel Hernández UCR 19.2
Jujuy Walter Barrionuevo FPV 36.0 Carlos Snopek Jujuy First Alliance 30.0
La Pampa Óscar Jorge Justicialist 53.5 Juan Carlos Marino Social and Civic Agreement 36.6
La Rioja Luis Beder Herrera R La Rioja People's Front 42.6 Ricardo Quintela FPV 27.8
Mendoza Celso Jaque Justicialist 37.9 César Biffi Citizen's Alliance 30.0
Misiones Maurice Closs Front for the Renewal of Concord 38.4 Pablo Tschirsch FPV 28.6
Neuquén Jorge Sapag Neuquén People's Movement 48.3 Horacio Quiroga FPV - UCR Alliance 35.0
Río Negro Miguel Saiz UCR 47.3 Miguel Ángel Pichetto FPV 40.8
Salta Juan Manuel Urtubey Salta Renewal Party - FPV Alliance 46.3 Walter Wayar Justicialist 45.3
San Juan José Luis Gioja FPV 61.2 Roberto Basualdo Front for Change 24.5
San Luis Alberto Rodríguez Saá R Justicialist 86.3 Roque Palma Popular Socialist 9.8
Santa Cruz Daniel Peralta FPV 58.1 Eduardo Costa UCR 38.8
Santa Fe Hermes Binner Progressive, Civic and Social Front 52.7 Rafael Bielsa FPV 41.9
Santiago del Estero2 Gerardo Zamora R Civic Front for Santiago 85.1 Marcelo Lugones Popular Unity Force (UCR) 5.0
Tierra del Fuego Fabiana Ríos ARI 52.4 Hugo Cóccaro FPV 47.6
Tucumán José Alperovich R FPV 78.2 Ricardo Bussi Republican Force 5.3

Sources: Clarín, September 3, 2007. National Electoral Direction, Ministry of Interior.
1: Civic and Social Front candidate Luis Juez, who lost by 1.1%, accused Justicialist candidate Juan Schiaretti of electoral fraud; the Argentine Supreme Court certified the results in October.[6]
2: Election held November 30, 2008.
R: Reelected.
L: Incumbent lost.

Legislative election results

Elections were also held for 130 of the 257 members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies and for 24 of the 72 members of the Argentine Senate. Results were as follows:

Chamber of Deputies
Senate

References

External links

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