The keys to understanding the second electoral round in Argentina

Argentina The second presidential round between two candidates is celebrated this Sunday to decide who will be the head of state starting on December 10 for the period 2023-2027.

This second round will be the closing of an electoral process that began in the primaries on August 13 with 27 candidates from 15 political fronts and continued with the general elections on October 22, in which no candidate obtained a Four. Five% or a 40% and 10 percentage points of votes over the next person with the most support, something included in the Argentine Constitution.

These are the keys to understanding election day

1. Who are the candidates?

The ruling party has as its candidate lawyer Sergio Massa, Minister of Economy since July 2022 and candidate for the Union for the Homeland coalition (Peronism), the new name of the ruling Frente de Todos. He was the most voted in October, with a 36.7% of the votes, according to the final count of the National Electoral Chamber (CNE). His candidate for vice president is Agustín Rossi, chief of staff of the Government of Alberto Fernández.

The opposition candidate is the leader of the La Libertad Avanza party (far-right), the economist Javier Milei, deputy since 2021 and surprising winner of the August primaries. He was second in October, with a 29.9% of the votes. She has lawyer Victoria Villarruel as vice president.

2. When do you vote?

The voting centers will be open this Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. local time (11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. GMT). The first official results of the provisional scrutiny can only be published from 9:00 p.m. local time (00:00 GMT on Monday).

3. Who votes?

Some 35.8 million Argentines are eligible to vote throughout the country. Voting is mandatory in Argentina; It is only optional between 16 and 18 years of age and from 70, and for Argentines residing abroad (regardless of their age).

4. Provisional scrutiny / definitive scrutiny

During the election night, the provisional scrutiny will be known, which is carried out by the Executive and has no legal validity; It only serves to inform citizens.

Forty-eight hours later, the final scrutiny begins by the Electoral Justice, which carries it out based on the scrutiny minutes signed by the table authorities and party prosecutors (party representatives) without reopening the polls – except in exceptional cases. -. It is the only one with legal validity.

5. What does it take to be president?

According to Law 24,444 of 1994, the candidate with the greatest number of affirmative votes validly cast will be elected president. This means that blank votes do not comprise, as already happened in the general elections and unlike the primaries, the universe of scrutiny; Therefore, they do not benefit one candidate or the other.

If the numbers are very close, so that there is a technical tie or none of the candidates recognize their defeat, we must wait for the final vote to proclaim the winner.

6. A single precedent in democracy

Argentina celebrates 40 years of the return to democracy after the dictatorship (1976-1983). Since then there has only been one runoff: it was in 2015, when the then leader of Cambiemos (today Together for Change, center-right), Mauricio Macri, won with a 51.3% of support for the Peronist Daniel Scioli (48.6%).

As a curiosity, those elections are the only presidential precedent of the current candidates, since Massa attended those general elections for the Renovador Front (then at odds with the ruling Peronism) and did not manage to reach the second round.

There could have been another case of second round. In 2003, Carlos Menem and Néstor Kirchner, both from the Justicialist Party (Peronism), were to compete in a runoff, but the former president (1989-1999) resigned from doing so and the until then governor of Santa Cruz became president (2003-2007). ).