ARGENTINA: PRESIDENT EDUARDO DUHALDE ASKS CONGRESS TO RUBBER STAMP HIS PLANS TO STEP DOWN IN MAY IN BID TO KEEP EARLY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS ON TRACK

Record ID: 640595

  • Title: ARGENTINA: PRESIDENT EDUARDO DUHALDE ASKS CONGRESS TO RUBBER STAMP HIS PLANS TO STEP DOWN IN MAY IN BID TO KEEP EARLY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS ON TRACK
  • Date: 24th October 2002
  • Summary: (W1) BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (OCTOBER 22, 2002) (REUTERS) MV DUHALDE LEAVING CONGRESS AND PEOPLE OUTSIDE YELLING INSULTS AND THROWING GARBAGE ON HIS CAR AND HOLDING BANNER (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 8th November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5HC0T31GTOO75HNRB3NJVPG4P
  • Story Text: Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde has asked Congress to rubber stamp his plans to step down in early May in a bid to keep early presidential elections on track despite political wrangling.
    Argentina's interim President Eudardo Duhalde handed Congress on Tuesday (October 22) legislative bills to seal his exit as the country's interim leader and approve his schedule for early elections in March 2003, fearing in-party squabbling could force a delay and hinder efforts to stabilize Argentina as it strives to emerge from its worst economic crisis.
    Analysts say Duhalde's request to quit on May 25, when power is due to be handed over to his successor, is a pressure tactic to keep the vote date as planned. Duhalde has threatened to step down even earlier if Congress does not back his plans, which could create a power vacuum and spark chaos.
    "The President of the Republic has a deadline of May 25, until then, we have to guarantee the elections," caretaker leader Duhalde, named Argentina's fifth president in a fortnight after the elected government was toppled in bloody riots in December, said in an address to lawmakers carried on television.
    The head of the lower house of Congress said afterward the bills could be debated as early as Wednesday.
    Courts this month overturned Duhalde's plans for state-run December primaries and a ruling is due on whether his decision to ease social tensions by bringing elections forward six months -- a move never formally backed by Congress -- was constitutional.
    A delay in the March election would create additional uncertainty, casting a cloud over ongoing aid talks with the International Monetary Fund, which the government hopes will let it roll over multilateral debts owed through 2003 to buy Argentina time to forge a recovery from a grinding four-year recession.
    It could also stoke public fury at deepening poverty engulfing half the population that has boiled over into sporadic violent protests like those that helped topple the elected government in December.
    As Duhalde spoke, crowds clanged pots and pans outside banks downtown to demand savings, frozen in banks late last year amid a panic run on the peso, be returned in what has become a near-daily show of Argentine exasperation.
    As he left Congress, some waiting protesters lobbed eggs at his car.
    Half of Argentines and many candidates want elections even earlier than March as Latin America's No. 3 economy suffers a recession worse than the U.S. Great Depression of the 1930s.
    Duhalde's popularity ratings are in single digits.
    Duhalde was due to meet with top Peronist figures later on Tuesday in a bid to get rival factions to agree to keep the ruling Peronist Party primary vote scheduled for Dec. 15.
    Former President and poll front-runner Carlos Menem, whose 1989-99 rule bloated the public debt pile, is one of several Peronist presidential hopefuls in bitter political battles to win the official nomination of a party riven with internal feuding.
    The winner of the Peronist primary vote is widely tipped to become the next president of Latin America's No. 3 economy, still reeling from a default on the bulk of 115 billion U.S. Dollars in public debt and a sharp currency devaluation.
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