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Argentina elections: Voters pick new president | Argentina elections: Voters pick new president |
(about 7 hours later) | |
Argentines have been voting to choose a new president to replace Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term. | |
Ms Fernandez, who stands down after eight years in power, says she leaves Argentines a better country. | |
Her hand-picked successor, left-winger Daniel Scioli, led opinion polls. | |
He is facing a strong challenge from the centre-right mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri. | |
Another candidate, Sergio Massa, a former ally of Ms Fernandez, is polling behind Mr Macri. There are three other names on the ballot paper. | |
Long queues formed outside polling stations from the early hours of Sunday. | |
"We are voting today in a completely normal country," said Ms Fernandez said after casting her vote in the Patagonian town of Rio Gallegos. | |
In previous decades, Argentines always went to the polls "in the middle of a serious crisis," she added. | |
Ms Fernandez said achieving stability and leaving Argentines "a normal country" was the promise made by her late husband, Neston Kirchner, when he took office in 2003. | |
He died in 2010, three years after handing over the presidency to his wife. | |
Matching Ms Fernandez's charisma will be difficult, says the BBC's Wyre Davies in Buenos Aires, but she has also arguably deeply divided Argentines. | |
Argentina elections: All to play for | Argentina elections: All to play for |
Sunday sees the first round of voting. To win outright a candidate needs 45% of the vote or a minimum of 40% as well as a 10-point lead over the nearest rival. | Sunday sees the first round of voting. To win outright a candidate needs 45% of the vote or a minimum of 40% as well as a 10-point lead over the nearest rival. |
Otherwise, there will be a run-off on 22 November. | Otherwise, there will be a run-off on 22 November. |
Hedge funds battle | |
Whoever wins the presidency faces significant economic challenges. | Whoever wins the presidency faces significant economic challenges. |
While the country gained strength after a financial crisis in 2002, its economy, the third-largest in Latin America, has slowed in recent years, with GDP growing by only 0.5% last year. | |
The government is also locked in a battle against American hedge funds who disagree with how it wants to restructure $100bn (£65bn) of debt on which it defaulted in 2001. | |
While the firms successfully sued Argentina for repayment, Ms Fernandez refused to pay. | |
Mr Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires province, is a former world powerboating champion who lost his right arm in a race in 1989. | |
Last week, he pledged tax cuts for workers earning under a certain income, a move expected to affect half a million people. | |
He has also vowed to bring down Argentina's inflation to single digits in less than four years and promises to introduce policy changes to invigorate the economy. | He has also vowed to bring down Argentina's inflation to single digits in less than four years and promises to introduce policy changes to invigorate the economy. |
While Mrs Kirchner has sought to press Argentina's claims for the UK territory of the Falkland Islands, Mr Scioli says he would not appoint a Falklands minister, and would seek closer ties with London. | |
"The world is going to watch the new president's first 24 hours very carefully," political analyst Pablo Knopoff told AFP news agency | |
"He'll have to deliver a message to convince people that Argentina is a country where they can invest, with clear rules." | "He'll have to deliver a message to convince people that Argentina is a country where they can invest, with clear rules." |
Thirty-two million Argentines are eligible to vote. | |
They are also electing members of Congress, governors and other local representatives. |