BUENOS AIRES – Argentinians choose new lawmakers on Sunday in a vote that could determine President Alberto Fernandez’s ability to govern effectively for the remaining two years of his term, marked so far by economic hardship worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.
The mandatory vote for nearly half the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the Senate follows September primaries in which Fernandez’s centre-left Frente de Todos (Front of All) ruling coalition suffered a battering.
In shock results, Frente garnered only about a third of votes cast compared to nearly 40% for the center-right opposition group, Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change), led by former president Mauricio Macri.
The September vote to pick candidates for Sunday’s elections revealed deep-seated disillusionment with the government of Fernandez, who said afterwards that “we must have done something not right”.
The outcome unleashed a political crisis pitting Fernandez against his deputy president and coalition partner Cristina Kirchner, who pressured her boss into a cabinet reshuffle in the hopes it would help appease an increasingly frustrated electorate.
Frente de Todos has 120 of 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, which is the lower House of Congress, with 124 up for grabs on Sunday.
It holds a majority of 41 out of 72 seats in the upper house, or Senate, which it will be eager to maintain, although analysts believe this is unlikely.
"If the results of the Paso (September’s primary) are repeated, the ruling party could lose its majority in the Senate,” said political analyst Rosendo Fraga of the New Majority think-tank.
“Not only would it not achieve a majority... but also lose seats.” – AFP, November 12, 2021
