Minister of Education Alberto Sileoni defended the proposal that would allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in a speech given before the Senate this morning. The gathering of speakers and politicians began at 9am at the Palacio de Congreso, and is the first public debate regarding the controversial bills.

Introduced by ruling party Frente Para la Victoria (FPV) senator Aníbal Fernández, the proposed bills would grant the right to vote to 16-year-olds as well as foreigners who have lived in Argentina for at least two years. At the moment, voting is mandatory for Argentines over the age of 18 and optional for those over 70.

Sileoni was the first of 61 guests invited to speak this morning, in a debate that is projected to last until at least 8pm tonight. Other speakers include Secretary of Human Rights Martín Fresneda, National Electoral Director Alejandro Tullio, representatives from various student and youth groups, as well as psychologists and sociologists.

“The expansion of rights is a victory, never a step back,” Sileoni said. He asked lawmakers to trust in the youth and their capacity to participate in the political process.

“We believe that our young people, who are struggling to have greater participation, are ready to do it,” he affirmed.

Although FPV officials believe that the bills will pass easily in October, there are those who remain skeptical of the law’s practicality. In August, the principal of Buenos Aires National School (a high school affiliated with the University of Buenos Aires) expressed doubt, stating “they [16-year-olds] are still being formed as citizens and have a lot to learn.”

Sileoni countered these arguments, stating that the bill – which makes voting optional for 16-17-year-olds – “does not presume that all youths have political vocations, however it makes it desirable that they get involved in politics”.

If passed, Article 7 of the Electoral Code will have to be amended to allow Argentines who have reached the age of 16 to enjoy full political rights under the Constitution. The 2013 elections would see an additional 1.5 million young people eligible to vote, or about 4.6% of the total population that voted in 2011.

With over 140 guests expected to speak, the debate will most likely continue in Congress next Wednesday, 26th September.

President Sebastián Piñera has put into force Chile’s automatic voting registration today, adding 4.5 million eligible voters to the registry. Before signing the bill, Piñera said “This is a great and historic day for Chile. But we as a country still have much more to do.”

This means that a larger proportion of the population will be able to cast their ballot at the municipal elections in October. The majority of those previously unregistered were people under 30. “We will now have a younger democracy with more participation,” Piñera said. “A democracy that will be stronger; I want to appeal to our youth, who have been distant from politics, to exercise their right to have a voice.”

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and VP-elect Amado Election (Photo courtesy of CFK Argentina)

With over 98% of the votes counted, incumbent president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Frente para la Victoria won 53.96% of the votes, securing her presidency for four more years. Her closest opponent came in far behind with a margin of more than 35 points.

Yesterday’s election results are yet another stride in Cristina Fernández’ political career. She had already stepped into history when in 2007 she became the first female to be elected president of Argentina. Today, gender aside, her victory is among the most emphatic in the country’s last 100 years. Only two presidents have won with a higher share of the votes: Hipólito Yrigoyen, first president of the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) party; and Juan Domingo Perón, creator of the Justicialista party and the Peronism movement.

There were other, smaller victories. In a surprise result, Hermes Binner from the Alianza Frente Amplio Progresista came second with just 16.87% of the vote, having gained on his nearest rivals by collecting over 5% more of the vote than in the August’s primaries. In response to some accusations, Binner said that he will not be a mere supporter of the FpV: “We will be the alternative in the Congress.”

Despite August’s primaries placing UCR candidate Ricardo Alfonsín second, he came in third with just 11% of the ballots. Eduardo Duhalde from the Alianza Frente Popular, on his revival in politics after disappearing since 2003, obtained almost ten percentage points fewer than in the primaries, coming in fifth. Alberto Rodriguez Sáa, candidate of Alizana Compromiso Federal ended up fourth. The former governor of San Luis proudly said: “My province is the only one she has yet to win.”

The worst night was for the candidate of the Coalición Cívica. Leader Elisa Carrió said: “It’s the worse election of our history.” In the presidential elections of 2007 Carrió came second with 23% of the votes. And in the mid-term elections of 2009 her party obtained more votes nationwide than the FpV, when the president’s popularity rating fell below 30%. Yesterday, Carrió picked up a mere 1.84%, leaving her party at the bottom of the list.

The days leading up to the elections lacked the typical pre-election fervor. Instead, there was more of a resigned “she has already won” in the public’s mind. Opposition parties campaigned for voters to cast their ballots in favour of their congressmen as they gave up on the idea of overtaking Cristina Fernández’ lead. This scepticism was due to the results of the primaries of 14th August.

Cristina and her son Maximiliano (Photo courtesy of CFK Argentina)

In her words

After all her rival candidates had spoke publicly, the president appeared on the stand dressed in black and started her speech calmly. Meanwhile, supporters there started cheering against Julio Cobos, her first term vice-president, who will be replaced by Amado Boudou during the second term. She chastised them quickly, saying: “Stop or I’ll get mad: in victory one must be more generous and thankful.” Her tone became fervid when she mentioned her late husband, Néstor Kirchner, to whom she dedicated her victory and called “one of the best political figures Argentina has had.”

She went on to criticise the local press, saying “Some who have microphones talk about institutions but then demolish them slowly”, claiming that before the new media law they used to be untouchables who nobody could challenge, and politicians had to beg for a minute more on television or a couple more lines in the newspaper columns.

The president then marked the significance of continuity. She then specified: “Not a personal continuity, the importance of a political project of the nation.” This statement could be interpreted as a way of saying that she will not try to change the constitution in order to have unlimited re-elections, as some politicians such as Carrió are warning. In March 2011 the president said while addressing the Congress: “If I have not reached a simple majority to pass the budget bill, who could possibly think of a Constitutional reform?” Now that voters have granted her control of the legislature some believe she might try to establish unlimited re-elections.

She concluded her speech remembering her husband: “I know he is here right now, more than ever.” Later, her daughter Florencia and son Maximiliano – who is slowly gaining presence in politics – joined her on stage, to close the election night victory dancing and celebrating in Plaza de Mayo in front of thousands of people.

Daniel Scioli and Cristina on the campaign trail (Photo courtesy of Daniel Scioli Flickr)

Buenos Aires Province mirrors Argentina

In the most populated province of the country, the presidential elections were simultaneous to the elections for governor. The candidate of the FpV, Daniel Scioli, was re-elected with 55% of the votes and leaving far behind the rest of the candidates. The resemblance to Cristina Fernández’ victory is clear as even the gap between the percentages of the candidates are almost identical. Both elections reflect not only the popularity of Kirchnerism but also the apparent downfall of opposite parties.

In Buenos Aires the UDESO candidate Francisco de Narváez came in second with 15.87% of the ballots; and Margarita Stolbizer for the same party as Hermes Binner ended up in third place with 11.68% of the votes.

Moreover, in Buenos Aires’s ballot there was also a candidate who in the mid term elections of 2009 received more votes than the FpV; and whose popularity today has weaken considerably. In 2009, Francisco De Narváez had reached a higher percentage of votes than Néstor Kirchner and Daniel Scioli himself. However, yesterday De Narváez could not manage to sustain his achievements, just as Elisa Carrió.

Daniel Scioli dedicated his triumph to the president and also mentioned Néstor Kirchner:”I had the privilege of accompanying him and starting this national project that Cristina [Fernández de] Kirchner is continuing magisterially.” In the province the blank votes surpassed the normal levels, reaching 12% of the votes, more votes than those collected by Stolbizer. Scioli’s victory leaves him as a possible candidate of the FpV in 2015 as President Fernández is not allowed to run for a third term.

Most of the votes casted by Bolivians during an election of top judges were rendered void as voters spoilt their ballot papers or left them blank. The opposition parties had urged people to treat their vote as an unofficial referendum on president Evo Morales’ government. As a result, about 45% of ballot papers were spoilt and 15% were left blank.

“Today we did not elect judges,” said Juan del Granado, leader of the opposition MSN party on Sunday. “Today the majority of the country has spoken out against a government characterized by authoritarianism.”

The judicial elections were Morales’ flagship policy to show he is leading a democratic government, giving power to the indigenous majority.

Morales refused to comment on the void ballot papers, but he told reporters in La Paz that he was happy with the high turnout, which accounted for eighty percent of the population according to official numbers. “Those who tried to boycott these elections failed,” he said.

Provincial elections recently took place in Chubut and Catamarca, but there have been accusations of corruption in the vote counting. With other provinces due to vote over the next few months, in the build-up to national elections in October, the Argentine population is wary of how the votes are held.

Regarding the elections in Chubut and provincial elections in general, a few people shared their opinions with the Argentina Independent, on Friday, just two days before the province of Salta also went to the polls.

Roberto Molino, 64, Parapsychologist, Congreso

“I think that the most important thing is that the person knows how to govern a region. Someone with social policies and financial plans, but this is very hard to find nowadays. The elections in Chubut don’t appear to have been conducted in an honest way, but hopefully they will be in Salta this weekend. I think that this is a political problem. I am nor sure about elsewhere, but the governors here act for their own personal interests, not the wider social interests. If you are a governor, you have to think about all the things that people need, such as social issues, finances, education and health. Argentina is a great country, that has everything, from the north to the south, but for many years the governors have failed to use this for the benefit of everyone.”

Jorge Martín, 56, Banker, Ramos Mejía

“It seems as if the election in Chubut was very close, because the results are still not certain, but the impression has been created that the provincial government has been involved in fraud, by manipulating the count. I think that it is a problem with this recent election, not a widespread one. These provincial elections are important because they are part of the build-up to the national elections, like steps.”

Génesis Pilla, 18, Student, Gonzalez Chávez

“This year I am going to vote for the first time. We all have the right, indeed the obligation, to vote and that is good. It is important that we do this minimum, because every vote counts. However, it should be done correctly, not like in Chubut. I have confidence in the process, although not complete confidence. It is a very bad story, what occurred in Chubut. I hope that this does not occur in all the provinces. It could happen, maybe even probably it will happen, but I hope not. It would be a regression in the democratic process, while we are trying to consolidate it.”

Maria-Louisa Lezana, 60, Cleaner, Avellaneda

“We can all have our opinions, but they do what they want. Have you seen the state of this country? This week, one can not take a bus, the hospitals are on strike, it is a disaster. I am no expert in politics, but in all my years, I have never seen a situation like what we have today. It is catastrophic. I think that this is the best country in the world, but the people in charge, the governors of the provinces, do not serve it. I do not understand what is happening in Chubut. The truth is that I have not voted in 15 years, neither in provincial nor national elections. They told me that when I try to get hold of my DNI I would be fined for not voting, and I was prepared to pay this fine, because I do not want to be a part of this corruption. They do not ask for our opinion of what they do. When I went for my new DNI, they did not say anything. There was no fine or anything. I went with the money to pay, because I did not vote, because I never relate to any of the candidates. None of them serve for the people.”

Hernán Pinerda, 24, Carpenter, Partido de Malvinas Argentinas

“I do not have much confidence in the system now, but we do not have other options. For example, the events in Chubut, destroy confidence. I have my candidate and I will vote, but many people do not believe in the system, they do not have faith in any of the candidates and so they will not vote. They do not want to vote for any of them, because they all appear to be the same.”

 
 
Photos by Melissa Riggall

Complaints that legislators expected to vote against the government’s 2011 budget proposal on Wednesday were bribed to abstain or change their stance have reached the Buenos Aires federal court today.

The government failed to get the majority it needed to approve the budget draft, which predicts growth of 4.3% and inflation of 8.9%.

Lawyers Ricardo Monner Sans and León Chaia have made separate representations before federal judges María Romilda Seervini and Ariel Lijo respectively, calling for an investigation into the accusations.

Monner Sans said: “The public prosecutor’s office must act alone in circumstances like these, which are deepening institutional decay.

“It has come to light that offers were made to deputies Cynthia Hotton and Elsa Álvarez and seven ‘anti-Peronist’ deputies while three Radical legislators were pressured,” he said in his presentation to the judge.

Chaia has meanwhile requested testimonies from deputies Elisa Carrió (Coalición Cívica), Hotton (Valores Para mi País) and Álvarez (Unión Cívica Radical).

“They received spurious offers and pressuring by government figures in an attempt to get enough votes for 2011 budget, which is being debated in congress,” said Chaia.

12 other legislators have retired from discussions and remain under suspicion.

Hotton and Álvarez complained that they received telephone calls from government officials telling them to retire before the vote took place. It is suspected that at least 12 of their ‘anti-Kirchner’ colleagues received similar calls.

The government lost the vote by 117 to 112 and the draft has been returned to the Budget Committee, headed by the Kirchnerite Gustavo Marconato after nearly 14 hours of debate, which finished at 2.40am yesterday.

Other deputies have said that they were offered “money, contracts, help with their districts” and anything else they asked for.

The scandal is reminiscent of bribery trials during the military alliance to approve the law on work flexibility.

It is expected that Augustín Rossi leader of the Frente Para Victoria (FVP) in the lower house will ask the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Fellner, to call another session for next Wednesday.

Rossi said (the fact that the draft had been returned to the commission) “left a bitter taste because we made an effort to listen to the opposition and have a proper debate,” and that the allegations had been “invented”.

With almost 94% of the votes from yesterday’s election counted, the ruling conservative coalition has won a majority of seats in the Colombian congress. ‘La U’, the right-wing party behind the current president Álvaro Uribe, gained the most ballots, with 24% of the vote. The Conservatives followed closely behind with 22%. Altogether, right-of-centre parties have won 62.9% of votes, ensuring the continuation of conservative rule in Colombia.

Voters went to the polls yesterday to elect Colombia’s 102 senators and 166 representatives. Despite threats from guerrilla groups, the elections went ahead without major violence and the ministry of defence described the ballot as “the most peaceful in 30 years”.

However, the news agency Merco Press noted that there was a high proportion of abstention, with only 57% of registered voters taking part in the ballot. Moreover, the Colombian Daily ‘El Columbiano’ reported almost 300 complaints of electoral fraud, including threats to voters, ballot buying and illegal participation of public officials in the elections. There have also been complaints from the Colombian government of delays in counting the votes.

Today’s election results in favour of the right-wing coalition come a few weeks after the Colombian court ruled against allowing Uribe to stand as president for a third term. This has led to speculation about the upcoming presidential elections, due to take place on May 30th.

The candidate from Uribe’s party ‘La U’, Defence Secretary Juan Manuel Santos, appears to be the most likely successor. The presidential nominations in the Conservative party have been heated, with rival candidates Noemí Sanín and Andrés Felipe Arias neck and neck. Given today’s result, it seems unlikely that a left-of-centre politician will win the presidency. The political commentator Fernando Giraldo told the BBC that Colombia’s left-wing parties “are a long way from becoming a viable political alternative.”

Outgoing President Uribe has dominated politics in Colombia for the last eight years, giving his name to the leading political movement “Uribism”. In contrast to other countries in the region such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, he has followed conservative political policies, increasing the strength of the army to combat the drugs trade, building strong ties with the United States and encouraging international investment. His government has remained popular, despite accusations of ties with right-wing paramilitary groups.

There has been speculation that the end of Uribe’s presidency will lead to serious political change in Colombia. However, José Obdulio Gaviria, a close ally of the president told the BBC that Uribe would continue to be involved in politics in the coming years and would remain the “boss, manager and unifying force behind Uribism”.

At the second busiest voting center in El Salvador, 131 voting tables stretched over a kilometre down the streets of Usulután, El Salvador.  Thousands of people crammed the busy street, some around registry lists posed on cardboard placards, others having already voted stay just to chat and watch the spectacle of the election day crowds.  Vendors were selling anything from salted green mangos to umbrellas as people waited in lines of  20 to 30, waiting for their turn to vote in arguably the most contested and historically important elections in Salvadoron history. 

At 5pm the voting tables closed and counting began; by 8.30pm it was apparent that Mauricio Funes of the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front), the 1980s armed-leftist-guerrilla-group-turned-political-party, had won.

The streets were filled with dancing and celebrations, as chants of “si se pudo” (yes we could), echoed alongside fireworks and Latin rock music. The elections made it clear: El Salvador would be governed by a leftist government for the first time in history starting 1st June. And for the first time, Salvadorans would have a peaceful, democratic transfer of government.

Mauricio Funes won 51.27% of the vote, while Rodrigo Avila (the candidate for the right wing ARENA (Republican National Alliance) party), was awarded 48.73%. The nearly two-year long presidential campaign was an ugly, dirty affair, marred by fear-mongering ARENA ads and exaggerated, if not sometimes fraudulent claims, of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez’s influence on FMLN policy, while the FMLN’s campaign focused on 15-plus years of failed ARENA policies, ever increasing socioeconomic inequalities, and the lack of governmental accountability.

As a result of the ruthless campaign, Salvadorans went to the polls Sunday in record numbers: 60% of the 4.3 million registered voters showed up to vote. Such turnout is significant given the lack of confidence in the electoral system in El Salvador, a country which has suffered a turbulent history of high level political corruption, military rule, fraudulent elections, and a bloody, decade-long civil war. As a result, only half of Salvadorans said they had confidence in the electoral process and only 42.6% believed the elections would be clean, according to pre election polling by the University Institute of Public Opinion (IUDOP) at the University of Central America.

The European Union and Organization of American States, as well as many other international observer brigades, have declared the elections free and fair despite many documented instances of voter irregularities on election day as well as the available avenues for large-scale institutional fraud by ARENA.  Nevertheless, the presiding ARENA party lost by an astonishingly close 2.5%. By 10.30pm election night Avila had already given his concession speech and the US ambassador had congratulated Funes in person.

If ARENA had won by such a small margin the election would be far from decided. There have been numerous allegations and documentations of fraud by international observational organisations like FUNDESPAD and CIS (Center for Exchange and Solidarity), mostly against ARENA: the buying of votes, dozens of buses full of foreigners brought over with the intention of voting, factory owners requiring employees to show cell phone photos of their marked ballots in order to keep their jobs, and the many available means of institutional fraud available to the seated ARENA government.

For example, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the organisation responsible for carrying out the electoral process, and the National Registry of Naturalised People which compiles the electoral registry, is run by the current ARENA government and  ARENA supporters and not accountable to bipartisan or third party review. This documented and undocumented fraud certainly narrowed the margin in Sunday’s vote, which while hotly contested in the end, was polled by IUDOP to be a 21 point FMLN victory the days leading up to the election.  This study had a less than three point standard of error and hints at the large amounts of fraud that took place.  In San Salvador there were rumored plans by the FMLN to take over the Hotel del Oeste Capitalino, the location where the election-night press conference was held, if serious fraud was reported that affected the final results. Thankfully there was no need as the ARENA party, subject of the vast majority of fraud allegations, lost.

With the election over, the FMLN has plenty of work on its hands.  For the first time they will run the government and Salvadorans and members of the international community alike are expecting results.  Record high global food prices await the incoming president, coupled with the worsening economic crisis, the highest murder rate in Latin America, over a quarter of Salvadorans working in the US, and an ever increasing number of Salvadorans living in abject poverty.  Funes will have the support of his ever-expanding band of Latino Leftists and what looks to be the benefit of the doubt from the new US Administration, but the freshly empowered FMLN will need to act quickly to meet Salvadorans’ high expectations, and all without a FMLN majority in the legislature.

Funes has promised to transition the economy from the current neo-liberalist style, export-driven economy to a more diversified one focusing on local food production, attempting to protect against the worsening global food crisis which has caused food prices in El Salvador – particularly staples such as rice, beans, and corn – to nearly double in the past two years. Funes also plans to reintroduce a nationalised health care system which the current administration privatised two years ago, an act which raised El Salvador’s medicine costs to the highest in the world, according to a National Salvador University study.  Funes also promises to introduce domestic and international policy that places the best interests of Salvadorans ahead of corporate profits and an economic policy that places more environmental and workplace regulations on foreign businesses.

Furthermore, the legitimacy of the electoral process will only be furthered by giving the FMLN a chance at setting electoral policy and procedure.  International Observer organisations have given
recommendations for the past 15 years on how to improve the security and validity of the electoral process, but nearly every recommendation of grave importance has been ignored election after election. The FMLN has been pushing for these unheeded electoral reforms for years and now will have a chance at following its own advice of implementing campaign finance reform and a fully transparent TSE in the hopes of increasing legitimacy and national confidence in the electoral process for the 2012 legislative elections.  Simple reforms in the electoral process, such as requiring the TSE to share voting registration lists and having sources of campaign finance regulated and public knowlege would greatly improve the security of the Salvadoran electoral system. 

Sunday’s election was not only a pivotal historical moment for Salvadorans, but for all of Latin America as well. El Salvador has won another successful battle for Latin Americas’ current swing towards the left, and in being the first country to do so since the new Obama Administration, it sets a precedent for more to come. The Obama Administration repeatedly stated that it would support and work with any Salvadoran government that was elected democratically in free and fair elections. This is a drastically different policy from that of the previous Bush Administration who in 2004 allowed members of his administration, congress, and the US Embassy to release pointed public statements threatening the deterioration of Salvadoran-US relations.  This included to withdrawal of US aid to El Salvador, the refusal to  renew Salvadoran work visas, and to block the practice of remittances if the FMLN were elected.

The election was not simply a victory for the FMLN, nor only a victory for Salvadorans’ electoral participation,  or even Salvadorans as a whole.  Rather, it was a victory for an ever-growing number of Latino social democratic states who are attempting to forge a political path that values national wealth over exports, standard of living over GDP, and human rights over profits. With the FMLN having won governmental power after years of struggle and sacrifice, the campaign graffiti that cover the streets of San Salvador is being painted over and Salvadorans as a whole express hope about what changes the FMLN might bring. The aura in San Salvador’s central market is one of a collective catharsis after decades of civil and political war. The FMLN has historically overcome one seemingly impossible challenge after another, from the civil war that characterised the 1980s, to the peace accords of 1992 that saw the FMLN turning their weapons in for legislative seats, and now finally the peaceful transition to executive power. Their next challenge – arguably both their most difficult and most important – is proving to the world that after 27 years of vying for power, that they can successfully use it to bring about a better tomorrow for El Salvador.

Photo courtesy of Presidencia de la Nación

In an election that yielded few surprises, First Lady and Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner won the presidency in a landslide victory, capturing 43.9% of the vote and besting her nearest rival, Elisa Carrió, by over 20 percentage points. While competing candidates had placed their hopes in the possibility of a runoff, it was apparent from early on that the night would end with a Kirchner win. With less than 10% of the national vote officially counted, a confident Kirchner strode onto the stage at her campaign bunker inside the Intercontinental Hotel and declared victory. Kirchner becomes the first woman to win a presidential election in Argentina and will succeed her husband, Nestór, on 10th December.

While the outcome of the election was all but certain before the polls opened, the specific results have delineated a new political landscape in the country. Kirchner’s national triumph serves as an overwhelming validation of her husband’s administration, giving the Kirchners’ party, Frente para la Victoria, a clear mandate to continue and expand upon its policies. Kirchner carried every province in the country with the exception of San Luis (where current governor Alberto Rodriguez Sáa captured 68% of the vote), Córdoba (where former finance minister Roberto Lavagna beat out Kirchner by over 10 percentage points), and the city Buenos Aires (where Chaco governor Elisa Carrió triumphed over Kirchner 36% to 25%.)

Carrió’s strong showing, combined with victories by her Coalición Civica candidates in the capital, elevated her to the status of de-facto leader of the opposition. Carrió quickly went on the offensive on election night, joining with other rival candidates in claiming that voting irregularities had tipped the scales even more decisively in the government’s favor. A formal letter of protest was signed by representatives from all the major opposition parties, citing ‘the absence of ballots at the start of the elections’ and ‘a systematic and massive robbery with the purpose of subverting the will of the citizens’.

The government categorically rejected these allegations. Anibal Fernández, Minister of the Interior, claimed that contrary to the opposition’s claims the election was ‘one of the most transparent in the history of Argentina’.

Kirchner’s early victory speech also rankled her opponents. Carrió criticized the Kirchners for celebrating their triumph when so little of the vote had been officially tallied. “There’s no civilized country in the world where a candidate announces victory before at least 60% of the vote has been counted,” Carrió said.

Photo courtesy of Presidencia de la Nación

Yet these complaints could do little to quell the ebullient mood at the Kirchner camp, where the president-elect extended an olive branch to her opponents and reaffirmed her commitment to all Argentines, whether or not they had voted to her.

Kirchner’s conciliatory gestures yielded some immediate results. In her victory speech, the president-elect spoke of her continued opposition to abortion, a statement that sat very well with the Church hierarchy. On the following Thursday, Cardinal Jorge Borgoglio sent a congratulatory note to Kirchner, leading to speculation that the relationship between the Church and the government may warm considerably after years of a frosty distance.

While Cristina Kirchner’s administration is expected to continue the majority of her husband’s policies, commentators have speculated that she will break from his precedent in a number of areas. Foreign policy appears to be first on the president-elect’s list.

With her victory all but assured, Cristina Kirchner spent little time campaigning within the country, choosing instead to tour Europe with the hopes of forming stronger global ties. Néstor Kirchner focused his foreign policy primarily on Latin America; Cristina Kirchner seems to have a more expansive international outlook. It was no accident that Ségolène Royal, the former French presidential candidate, was on hand for the Kirchners’ election night festivities. President-elect Kirchner wants to be the global face of her nation in a way that her husband never has been.

While the election proved a rousing victory for the Kirchners, and a promising victory-in-defeat for Elisa Carrió, it was a major setback for Mauricio Macri, the capital’s ambitious head of government-elect. Macri had hoped to use the elections as a foundation on which to build a strong opposition to the Kirchner government, fueling speculation that he plans to run for the presidency in 2011.

Photo courtesy of Presidencia de la Nación

Yet, Macri’s election day project proved a dud. His party, Propuesta Republicana (PRO), fielded a slate of candidates in Buenos Aires city but captured only two seats in the Lower House, casting serious doubts on Macri’s ability to create a nationally viable party. In June, Macri, the former president of the Boca Juniors football club, won 60% of the vote in the run-off election for head of government of the capital, leading many to anoint him the most compelling alternative to the Kirchners. Yet following his defeats on election night, he will assume power on 10th December from a considerably weaker position than he held a mere three months ago.

The ramifications of this historic election will play out over the years to come, but for now, it appears the county is holding its breath. The first democratically-elected female president will face serious challenges from the moment she assumes power, from curbing runaway inflation to reeling in a serious crime problem that afflicts many of the country’s major cities. On election night, Buenos Aires was remarkably still, the Plaza de Mayo lying as empty as any other night. The Kirchners’ bunker in the Intercontinental Hotel may have been raucous, but outside were tough realties lying in wait. Even with Carrió’s rise and Macri’s stumble, the opposition remains splintered. It appears, then, that the course of Argentina’s foreseeable future will rest squarely on the shoulders of the new president.