| Argentina first lady triumphs in presidential elections |
|
|
AFP Photo
Argentine presidential candidate Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner greets supporters in Buenos Aires. Kirchner, has won a mandate to take over from her husband as president, according to a near-complete count of ballots from a weekend election.
|
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Argentina's current first lady, Cristina Kirchner, has won a mandate to take over from her husband as president, according to a near-complete count Monday of ballots from a weekend election.
Kirchner, a 54-year-old senator known for dressing glamorously, had not even waited for the final results before triumphantly telling her supporters just hours after Sunday's poll: "We have won by a large margin."
Monday's tally of ballots from virtually all the country's polling stations -- 96 percent of them -- proved her right, showing she had won 44.9 percent of the vote, nearly double that of her nearest rival.
That was enough for her to be declared the outright victor without the need for a November runoff.
She is due to take office on December 10, succeeding her husband Nestor Kirchner, 57, who is stepping down after just one four-year term without explanation.
"We congratulate her and recognize her victory," said the second-placed candidate, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio.
She had 23 percent of the vote, according to the latest count. Roberto Lavagna, a former economy minister sacked two years ago by Nestor Kirchner, came in third with 16.9 percent.
Eleven other candidates trailed behind. Voting is compulsory in Argentina.
The first lady was the favorite going into the elections. Her support largely came from Argentina's poor, whose ranks swelled in the wake of a 2001 economic crisis that saw the country become the biggest defaulter of sovereign debt in history.
The current president saw over an impressive recovery of the economy during his term. Growth has brushed nine percent a year and unemployment has fallen.
But while many voters who backed "Cristina", thinking a vote for her was a vote for her husband too, and the two would govern jointly, the head of Kirchner's cabinet, Alberto Fernandez, said that would not be the case.
"I don't see any risk of that at all," he said.
"Whoever knows the couple, their marriage, knows that, while they talk to each other about everything, they both know the role each has to play," he said.
Observers say Cristina Kirchner will be tested as she confronts the high inflation, rising crime and low foreign investment threatening her country's recovery.
"She will find it a very different challenge than that during her husband's term," Michael Shifter, a Latin American analyst at the Washington think tank The Dialogue, told AFP.
A steely lawyer who got a taste of executive power during her husband's term in office, Fernandez has been frequently compared to Hillary Clinton, a US lawyer, senator, former first lady, and also a presidential hopeful.
Fernandez's designer dresses and reputation for arrogance have also made many talk about her in terms of Argentina's most iconic woman politician: Eva, or "Evita" Peron, second wife to president Juan Peron.
Peron's third wife, Isabel, was Argentina's first-ever female president -- but unlike Kirchner, she was unelected, elevated from the vice-presidency on her husband's death in 1974.
She was ousted in a coup two years later. Kirchner's Front for Victory party was also set to seize a majority in the legislative Chamber of Deputies and hold the Senate, in a simultaneous vote Sunday, while his allies won governorships in eight provinces, officials said.
© AFP 2010
Copyright AFP or Agence France-Presse, 2004.AFP text, photos, graphics and logos shall not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP shall not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP content, or for any actions taken in consequence
|
|
|