Argentine legislative election, 2005

Argentina held national parliamentary elections on Sunday, 23 October, 2005. For the purpose of these elections, each of the 23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires are considered electoral districts.

Each district elected a number of members of the Lower House (the Argentine Chamber of Deputies) roughly proportional to their population. Eight districts (Buenos Aires, Formosa, Jujuy, La Rioja, Misiones, San Juan, San Luis, and Santa Cruz) also elected members to the Upper House of Congress (the Argentine Senate); as usual, three senators were elected (two for the majority, one for the first minority).

In most provinces, the national elections were conducted in parallel with local ones, whereby a number of municipalities elected legislative officials ("concejales") and in some cases also a mayor (or the equivalent executive post). Each provincial election followed local regulations.

A number of districts had held primary elections beforehand. In most cases, primary elections are optional and can be called for by the local political parties as needed; in Santa Fe, however, the primaries were universal and compulsory due to a recent law that repealed the much-criticized Ley de Lemas.

Political overview

In some districts, different factions of the Justicialist Party (PJ) presented candidates separately. In the province of Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires City, the main intra-party division of the PJ was between the center-right traditional Peronist faction led by Hilda González de Duhalde (wife of former governor and interim president Eduardo Duhalde) and the more center-left "heterodox" faction with candidates that answer to President Néstor Kirchner, including his own wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and Minister of Foreign Relations Rafael Bielsa. In the province of Buenos Aires, this split was protested by other parties, on the grounds that the PJ (taken as a whole) would most likely win the three senatorial benches available (as it finally occurred).

Kirchner took a prominent role in the campaign for "his" candidates of the Front for Victory ("Frente para la Victoria", FV) in most provinces, explicitly stating that these elections were a plebiscite about his administration. The opening and closing campaign meetings of the FV were both held in Rosario, a typically progressive city with a successful Socialist local government since 1987 that tends to counter the traditional electoral draw of Peronism in the province of Santa Fe. Kirchner also participated in a meeting in La Rioja, where former president Carlos Menem retains some influence and was a candidate for the Senate.

Results

For official results, visit " [http://www.elecciones2005.gov.ar/ Elecciones 2005] ", a website opened by the Argentine Ministry of Interior (in Spanish). SITE CURRENTLY DOWN, though data exists elsewhere on site

The main parties competing for the votes in Argentina that obtained any of the disputed seats in the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies were:

* President Kirchner's faction of Peronism, called "Frente para la Victoria" (FV, "Front for Victory") and its allies.
* Other factions of Peronism, under the usual name "Partido Justicialista" (PJ, "Justicialist Party"), often led by their respective provincial party leaders (notably Eduardo Duhalde in Buenos Aires).
* "Unión Cívica Radical" (UCR, "Radical Civic Union").
* "Afirmación Para Una República Igualitaria" (ARI, "Support for an Egalitarian Republic"), led by Elisa Carrió.
* "Recrear para el Crecimiento" (Recreate for Growth, usually shortened to "Recrear") and its allies within the "Propuesta Republicana" (Republican Proposal, PRO) front.
* "Partido Socialista" (PS, Socialist Party).

In the country as a whole, the Front for Victory obtained an overwhelming triumph. Of the 127 deputies elected, the FV won 69 seats (54%); the UCR only got 19. The rest of the Justicialist Party obtained 11 seats; Recrear got 9, the ARI got 8, and the Socialist Party got 5. Only the three most voted in this list have an established national structure; Recrear and the ARI are relatively recent offshoots of the UCR (to the right- and left-wing side of the political spectrum, respectively), and the Socialist Party's five deputies all belong to the province of Santa Fe, the only district where the PS is strong.

As explained above, eight provinces were also scheduled to renew their senators (the Senate is renewed by thirds every two years). The Front for Victory won 17 of the 24 senatorial seats. The other factions of Peronism got 4 senators. The UCR got the remaining 3 seats. Among the remarkable results were the victory of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Buenos Aires, the largest in the country, beating Hilda González de Duhalde by about 25% of the votes; and the defeat of Carlos Menem in his home district, La Rioja (though he won the first minority seat).Parties took part in the elections in various alliances and with various labels in the diverse provinces. The table below is based on the results per province listed at [http://www.elecciones2005.gov.ar/ Elecciones 2005] .

In the news

* [http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/10/23/argentina.elections.reut/ CNN] (Link dead as of 03:08, 15 January 2007 (UTC))
* [http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/12987942.htm Miami Herald] (Link dead as of 03:08, 15 January 2007 (UTC))
* [http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/10/24/argentinas_ruling_party_dominates_vote/ Boston Globe] (Link dead as of 03:08, 15 January 2007 (UTC))
* [http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/16359_Argentina.html Pravda] (English edition)
* [http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051024/wl_afp/argentinavote_051024061643 AFP] (via Yahoo! News) (Link dead as of 03:08, 15 January 2007 (UTC))
* [http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a4b95844-44a3-11da-a5f0-00000e2511c8.html Financial Times]
* From the "Line of sight" weblog: [http://www.wrighton.com.ar/?p=247 "Pick your poison"] , [http://www.wrighton.com.ar/?p=251 "And the winner is..."] (and follow ups).
* From the "GoodAirs" weblog: [http://www.goodairs.com/2005/10/argentine-elections-and-clientelismo.html "The Argentine Elections and "Clientelismo"]

References

"In Spanish unless otherwise noted."
* [http://www.elecciones2005.gov.ar/ Election results]
* [http://www.towsa.com/andy/ Election results and maps] - Atlas Electoral de Andy Tow
* [http://www.mininterior.gov.ar/elecciones/ National Electoral Direction] - Ministry of Interior of Argentina