Argentines enter a period of reflection for Sunday’s primary elections

The Argentines began this Friday the period of reflection for the primary elections next Sunday, in which the candidates who will be able to compete in the general elections on October 22 will be defined.

The electoral ban is in force from 8:00 a.m. local time (11:00 GMT) this Friday, until which time the candidates took the opportunity to ask voters for support in the media and social networks.

The ban includes the prohibition of carrying out proselytizing acts and disseminating campaign notices through the mass media.

To this is added, since last Saturday, the prohibition of publishing and disseminating vote intention surveys by the media.

The Argentine electoral law also prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages and public shows in the open air or in closed venues and theatrical and sporting events on Sundays.

All restrictions apply until three hours after the polls close at 6:00 p.m. local time (21:00 GMT) on Sunday.

A total of 35.4 million voters are eligible to go to the polls in these primaries, in which political groups can present one or more lists of candidates to decide internally and must obtain at least 1.5% of the votes to be able to compete in the elections on October 22, with a possible second round on November 19.

At the national level, citizens will vote among 27 lists of candidates for president and vice president for a four-year term, which will begin on December 10.

In addition, a vote will be taken to validate the lists of applicants to fill national parliamentary positions: in October 130 seats of representatives from all districts of the country and 24 seats of senators representing eight provinces (Buenos Aires, Formosa, Jujuy, La Rioja, Misiones, San Juan, San Luis and Santa Cruz).

Likewise, lists of candidates compete to be part of the Mercosur Parliament (Parlasur), the legislative body of the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

In this case, in October a total of 43 Argentine parliamentarians will be elected to join Parlasur.

Simultaneously with the national ones, this Sunday primaries for provincial and municipal positions will be held in the provinces of Buenos Aires -the most populous in the country-, Entre Ríos and Catamarca.

And concurrently there will also be elections in the southern province of Santa Cruz, where provincial general elections are being held -not primaries-, and in the city of Buenos Aires, where primaries will be held for head of local government and legislative and communal positions but for an electronic voting system different from that of the national primary, so the citizens of the capital must vote twice this Sunday.

Voting is mandatory in Argentina for citizens between 18 and 70 years of age and optional for those over that age and for adolescents between 16 and 17 years of age.

In these primaries, the seventh that have been held since Argentina adopted with the 2011 elections this system of open, mandatory and simultaneous internal elections (PASO), there will be 104,577 polling stations, distributed in 17,000 election centers, mostly schools.

Source: EFE