Argentina presidential race going to runoff

By Charles Newbery

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina

Mauricio Macri emerged ahead in Argentina’s general election Sunday, likely forcing a November runoff against the ruling party’s candidate.

The two-time conservative mayor of Buenos Aires got 36 percent of the vote for Cambiemos, a coalition of more conservative parties, according to a preliminary count of more than 60 percent of the ballots by the National Electoral Board.

The preliminary results are a surprise for the politician who had been running a distant second to the ruling party’s Daniel Scioli – a former vice president and a two-time Buenos Aires governor.

Scioli took 35 percent for Front for Victory, a populist-left party that has ruled the country since 2003.

Sergio Massa, a left-of-center congressman, trailed in third with 21 percent, while three other candidates were further behind.

The results could still change as more votes are counted in Buenos Aires province, a hotbed for Scioli and the ruling party.

Candidates are required to garner 45 percent of the vote or at least 40 percent plus a 10 percentage point lead on second place to win outright in the first round, according to election rules.

If current numbers remain the same, Macri and Scioli will compete in a Nov. 22 runoff.

That could make it harder for Scioli to narrow the gap and win if all the votes against him go to his opponent.

The wild card is Massa, 43, whose voters could go either way.

In the run up to Sunday’s poll, Massa equally slammed Macri and Scioli in a bid to get to the second round.

While Massa and Macri have entertained a potential partnership, it is uncertain if this could happen or even if such a deal would drive voters to Macri.

Massa and Scioli are part of Peronism, a nationalist political movement that has dominated since the 1940s. It was started by Juan Domingo Peron, a military officer who served two terms as president.

Scioli, a 56-year-old former powerboat racer who lost his right arm while competing in 1989, has already started to rally the support of Massa voters.

“I ask those who chose another proposal to accompany me,” Scioli said in a televised speech ahead of the release of the first results Sunday. “Like Peron, I believe that together we all succeed.”

He also sought to differentiate himself from Macri, a 56-year-old businessman and son of one of the world’s richest men.

“There are two very different visions of the present and the future of Argentina at stake,” Scioli said. “Our priorities are the poor, workers and our middle class.

"Macri, a former president of the popular soccer club Boca Juniors, also called on voters of the losing candidates to back him in a runoff.

“Together we can build the Argentina that we have dreamed up, that we deserve,” he said at the Cambiemos bunker in Buenos Aires.