ARGENTINA-ELECTIONS/BUENOS AIRES CITY Buenos Aires primary swept by opposition presidential candidate's party

Record ID: 157998

  • Title: ARGENTINA-ELECTIONS/BUENOS AIRES CITY Buenos Aires primary swept by opposition presidential candidate's party
  • Date: 27th April 2015
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PRO MAYORAL CANDIDATE HORACIO RODRIQUEZ LARRETA ARRIVING AT PRO HEADQUARTERS
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACI5Y9EFYN9HQZU1Y1NX3J26W2
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The presidential campaign of Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri received a boost on Sunday (April 26) when his pro-business party took nearly half the votes in a primary election in the Argentine capital he has run for the past eight years.
    Macri has built a power base in Buenos Aires, which accounts for nearly 10 percent of the national vote, and is one of three leading candidates for October's presidential election. President Cristina Fernandez is barred from a third term.
    In the Buenos Aires primary, the two candidates of his opposition PRO party together took nearly 48 percent of the vote, first official results showed, with returns in from two thirds of polling stations.
    Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, whom Macri had backed, ultimately won the internal battle for the PRO candidacy with a 10-percentage point lead over party rival Gabriela Michetti.
    "This is only beginning, continue believing in this team that we have. Today we have taken a step, an important step, but one that's far from being definitive," said Larreta.
    Analysts say it is almost certain the centre-right PRO, which Macri co-founded, will win in the Buenos Aires election on July 5.
    Candidates from other parties like Martin Lousteau from the Organized Citizen Energy (ECO) party called on residents to choose carefully in the July election.
    "We call upon all those who share our priorities and above all our ethical principles, to all those who believe things can be done differently but without making an obscene use of the State apparatus, to come out for the second round," said Lousteau, who won as the ECO party's mayoral candidate on Sunday.
    The Victory Front, Fernandez's ruling Peronist party, won just 18.6 percent of overall votes, putting it in third place behind ECO.
    "Kirchnerismo (ruling party), with all its parties, with all its greatness will not be a mere witness. On July 5 we want to enter the runoff to win on July 19. We are going to fight to win the city of Buenos Aires," said Victory Front mayoral candidate Mariano Recalde.
    Polls show two thirds of voters want a break from Fernandez's interventionist policies, that critics say have hobbled Latin America's third-largest economy which is now teetering on the brink of recession.
    Under the leadership of the 56-year-old former president of the Boca Juniors soccer club, the PRO party has earned a reputation for getting things done in Buenos Aires, despite criticism from opponents who slam the party for its allegedly conservative values and neoliberal perspectives.
    Macri has a 60-percent approval rating in the capital. Together with Buenos Aires state Governor Daniel Scioli of the ruling Victory Front party, he is leading national polls of presidential candidates.
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