ARGENTINA-ELECTION/PROFILE SCIOLI Argentina's ruling party front-runner readies for uncertain first round

Record ID: 135028

  • Title: ARGENTINA-ELECTION/PROFILE SCIOLI Argentina's ruling party front-runner readies for uncertain first round
  • Date: 23rd October 2015
  • Summary: LA PLATA, BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE, ARGENTINA (FILE - 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TEACHERS PROTESTING FOR SALARY INCREASE LA PLATA, BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE, ARGENTINA (FILE - 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POLICE PROTESTING FOR SALARY INCREASE AERIAL VIEW OF PROVINCIAL CAPITAL OF LA PLATA FOLLOWING FLOODING VARIOUS OF CITIZENS BEING EVACUATED IN RESCUE RAFT GOVERNOR SCIOLI WALKING T
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Uruguay
  • Country: Uruguay
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACZR5WTVF4U75I4LNPRRV49P1X
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL
    Daniel Scioli, the ruling Front for Victory candidate is ahead in opinion polls, but cannot be sure of an outright win in the first round of Argentina's presidential election on Sunday (October 25). If the race goes to a runoff, he could be vulnerable.
    To walk away with the presidency this weekend, the current governor of Buenos Aires province needs to win 40 percent of the vote with a 10 point margin over his nearest challenger, who is likely to be Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri of the centre-right PRO party.
    The 58-year-old former speedboat racer, seen here with his running mate Carlos Zannini and his wife, ex model Karina Rabolini, championed the ruling Front for Victory coalition during primary election celebrations in August.
    "Have no doubt, because this, the Front for Victory, is the political space that gives the Argentines peace, predictability, confidence," he said.
    Scioli was born into a middle-class family in Buenos Aires. The family electronics business gave him a taste for commerce and he later headed Electrolux's Argentina unit.
    But he became a household name as a powerboat racer. He lost his right arm above the elbow when his boat flipped in 1989, but went on to win several world championships.
    His first foray into politics came at the age of 40 when he was elected to Congress in 1997 under the tutelage of the then neoliberal Peronist president, Carlos Menem.
    In 2003 Nestor Kirchner, the late husband of Cristina Fernandez, chose Scioli as his vice-president on a centre-left ticket.
    But their relationship quickly soured over policy differences and although Scioli held his post until 2007, he was shunned by Kirchner's inner circle.
    Even as president of Argentina's ruling Justicialist party and as governor of the country's most populous province since 2007, Scioli's relations with Fernandez remained turbulent and the pair are still not close.
    A moderate within the broad Peronist movement that has ruled Argentina for all but eight years since the country's return of democracy in 1983, Scioli is more pragmatic and pro-market than Fernandez. He now says policy changes are needed to get the economy moving.
    Buenos Aires province, roughly the size of Ecuador or the U.S. state of New Mexico, is home to one in three Argentines, and will be a key battleground in the Oct. 25 presidential election.
    The provincial capital of La Plata is subject to frequent flooding and the two-time governor has received mixed reviews regarding his efforts to solve the all too common flooding crisis.
    Scioli has billed himself as the candidate of "gradual change" against the backdrop of a stagnant economy with double-digit inflation and limited access to global credit markets.
    "I have prepared all my life for this [to be president], I know that for one to aspire to this kind of thing, one has to have experience and to know what to do and how it do it. So I have great hopes," said Scioli, during a recent visit to neighbouring Uruguay where he met with President Tabare Vazquez.
    Yet his choice of Carlos Zannini as running mate, a close adviser from President Fernandez' inner circle, suggests he might steer a course more in line with the current administration's unorthodox policies.
    "We can talk about the things we are going to do because we have the guarantee in the selvage, from the things we have done. And this transformation is not going to end because Daniel Scioli is going to be president to all Argentines. And it's going to continue," said the two-term president who is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term.
    In public, Scioli says there is no rush to resolve the acrimonious legal battle with U.S. hedge funds that plunged Argentina back into default in 2014 even though his inner circle acknowledges that he wants a deal.
    "What has our country shown? That it is not necessary to pay the vulture funds to access international financing destined to sustain the productive and social structure. We will continue working in order to pay 100 percent of our international creditors, but yes, in just, equal and sustainable conditions," he said.
    Scioli would win the presidency on Sunday (October 25) if he clinches 40 percent of the vote with a lead of 10 percentage points over his nearest challenger. Anything less and he will be forced into a Nov. 22 run-off and could be vulnerable if the opposition unites against him.
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