Argentina Primaries 2023: Sergio Massa’s Unión por la Patria Finishes Third

Buenos Aires — Argentines took to the polls this Sunday, August 13 as part of the Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory Primary Elections (PASO), which narrowed down the final candidates for the general elections on October 22. They voted for their candidates of preference in the categories of president and vice-president, national senators (in eight out of 24 districts) and Lower House representatives. Mercosur parliamentarians were also be on party ballots.

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Political forces that achieved at least 1.5% of the valid votes cast in each category will be able to move forward and compete in the October elections. Those that did not muster that percentage will be barred from taking part.

In addition to the national elections, local elections were held simultaneously in the Buenos Aires City and in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos and Catamarca; in Santa Cruz the elections are not primaries, but rather will define the province’s new governor.

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With 64.04% of the votes counted, Javier Milei leads the race with 32.31% of the votes. Juntos por el Cambio reaches 27.64% (16.98% for Patricia Bullrich, who defeated Larreta). Unión por la Patria comes in third place with 25.69% of the votes.

Juntos por el Cambio’s Patricia Bullrich, announced that she will lead the coalition in October: “Rodríguez Larreta already called me and congratulated me.

With 78.04% of votes counted, Jorge Macri was coming out on top in Juntos por el Cambio’s two-horse race for the Buenos Aires City mayor’s office, with 28.35% of the votes against Martín Lousteau’s 26.96%. With both of those percentages combined, Juntos was achieving 55.16% of the vote in the Argentine capital. Meanwhile, Leandro Santoro, from Unión por la Patria, was at 22.21% and Ramiro Marra, part of Javier Milei’s La Libertad Avanza was fourth with 13.39%. No data for national elections were available at this time.

While electoral authorities have reaffirmed that there is no official estimate for when the first results will be published on the government’s website, Unión por la Patria candidate and current Economy Minister, Sergio Massa, mentioned earlier in the day that he was anticipating that the first data would be available as of 21:30hs.

The final participation in this year’s primaries was around 68.5% of the total electorate, barely above the percentage registered in 2021, which stood at 67% and 10 percentage points below the record turnout for a PASO in 2011 (78.6%).

The National Electoral Chamber (CNE) informed that by 18:20hs 66% of the electorate had voted out of the total of 35,405,013 people qualified to vote this year. At that same time of the PASO (midterm legislative elections) of 2021, 66% of the electorate had voted. However, today’s turnout was significantly lower than the 76% registered during the presidential PASO of 2019, when Alberto Fernández won by a wide margin over Mauricio Macri.

Amid lingering uncertainty about the extension of voting hours in the Buenos Aires City, polling centers in the rest of the country the are starting to close their doors. Those who were waiting in line to enter their voting center will still be able to vote. On the other hand, citizens who have arrived at their school after 6:00 p.m. will not be able to vote in the PASO.

With only one hour left for the closing of the elections, the National Electoral Chamber (CNE) informed that 61.5% of the 35,405,013 people eligible to vote this year have done so today. In spite of this, authorities have informed that those who are in line at closing time will be able to cast their vote.

The National Electoral Court (CNE) criticized the electronic voting system that was used today in Buenos Aires City, stating in a news release that local authorities failed to carry out the necessary audits for the implementation of electronic polling stations.

The court noted that necessary “conditions have not been fulfilled by the City’s electoral authorities before implementing the system in question, as was advised by this Court last July 27,” warned the CNE. For all these reasons, the National Electoral Court expressed its “concern regarding the situation that has unfolded, as it has hindered the participation of voters in the City and also in the voting process for national positions, unrelated to the deficiencies of this electronic system”.

The National Electoral Chamber (CNE) informed that 48% of the electorate has voted out of the total of 35,405,013 Argentines qualified to vote this year. At the same time during the PASO of 2021, 43.5% of the registered electorate had voted, while in the primaries of 2019, the percentage was virtually the same as today’s.

Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner cast her vote in Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz province. The former Argentine head of state fulfilled her civic duty in a district that is also voting for governor this Sunday.

After casting her vote, Cristina Kirchner complained about the delay in entering to cast her vote and said that she had to wait for an hour and a half. She avoided commenting on her expectations ahead of the results tonight: “Let’s wait for the people’s opinion and then we will know what the next [October] election will be like”.

Javier Milei, a Libertarian candidate for president for La Libertad Avanza, has voted in Buenos Aires City and questioned the implementation of an electronic voting system that has led to long lines at voting stations.

“These are the things that happen when you improvise, in order to cheat and get an electoral advantage, that these things happen. Every time politicians cheat, the people pay for it”, said the current lawmaker about capital’s voting system. “We have given our best, and now it is time to wait for the results,” he added.

Technical difficulties have been reported with the electronic voting stations in Buenos Aires City, and Juntos por el Cambio presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich was among those who faced problems. She said she was happy to have cast her vote, but highlighted that voting electronically Buenos Aires City authorities was “difficult”.

“My experience was poor, because I had to vote seven times and they had to change the machine, it took me half an hour,” said Bullrich.

The National Electoral Chamber (CNE) confirmed that 28% of the electorate has voted out of a total of 35,405,013 citizens eligible to do so this year.

Several voters have complained over long lines and taking longer than an hour to cast their vote in the city of Buenos Aires, where two different voting systems are being used simultaneously this Sunday: the electronic ballot for local authorities and a paper ballot for national authorities.

After such problems were reported, the Electoral Court is analyzing the extension of the voting hours until 7 pm. Judge María Servini de Cubría has strongly criticized the organization of the election by the municipal government.

Former President Mauricio Macri voted in the city of Buenos Aires and criticized sectors of the Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change) coalition, for having allegedly violated restrictions on the activities that are allowed 48 hours prior to the elections. The former president was referring to text messages sent on Saturday promoting the candidacies of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Martín Lousteau.

“The party authorities are studying the case and are going to file a complaint. This was the doing of an obscure political operator, and I don’t know why so much of Juntos por el Cambio use this (Guillermo) Seita so much”, declared Macri after casting his vote. “Instead of debating ideas they do these things that are not right. Disillusioned that we resort to that kind of operators that are not good for politics”, he said.

Social leader Juan Grabois, a candidate for president within Unión por la Patria who is competing against Sergio Massa, has voted in Buenos Aires City. He expressed his wish that “we take care of democracy”. “Let this be a real democracy with full rights, to land, roof and work, to social justice and to life,” he said.

“We did what we could, with the few tools we had at our disposal, I think we did a good thing by putting issues on the table,” he added about his pre-candidacy.

Buenos Aires City Electoral Judge, María Servini, questioned a “never seen before imperfect system in the organization and execution of the electoral process” in the Argentine capital, where two different systems are used for voting. On the one hand, the single electronic ballot is being employed for local offices and the traditional paper ballot for the election of national authorities, a system called “concurrent elections”.

The electronic system has generated delays and frustration for several citizens during the elections. In a letter sent to the National Electoral Chamber, Servini pointed out a “degree of improvisation with which the company contracted to provide and install the voting machines has handled” the election. She also targeted the Electoral Management Institute of the city of Buenos Aires. Servini’s complaint is not part of any formal statement, but rather an opinion.

President Alberto Fernández voted in Puerto Madero, city of Buenos Aires, said that the concurrent voting format “is very easy” and anticipated that he will await for results in the presidential residence of Olivos, which confirms that he will not be at the Unión por la Patria campaign headquarters.

Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, presidential candidate for Juntos por el Cambio, voted this morning at the UBA Law School, and encouraged all Argentines vote: “I understand the frustration, but the way out is by voting”.

Regarding the critique over the delays to vote in Buenos Aires City, he said: “Some ballot boxes will take a little longer but what they tell me is that everything is working fine”, said the current mayor of the capital.

Buenos Aires City Mayor and presidential candidate for Juntos por el Cambio, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, had breakfast in the municipality of Tigre with Diego Santilli, candidate for governor of Buenos Aires Province. He asked citizens to “go and vote, it is important that today they express their voice”.

Larreta will share a campaign headquarters with his party rival, Patricia Bullrich, from where they will both await the elections’ official results. Larreta asked the people to vote “even if they are tired, even if they have already voted this year in other local elections, even if they are angry”.

The first presidential candidate to cast his vote this Sunday was Sergio Massa. At around 8:40 a.m., in a school located in the Municipality of Tigre, the current Economy Minister cast his vote and then remarked: “Today is a first step, each political force will define its candidates. We have good perspectives and expectations”.

Massa said that at 11:00 a.m. he will receive the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, and Leandro Santoro, pre-candidate for Head of Government of the City of Buenos Aires, to follow how the elections are coming along. He also said that he would accompany his wife, Malena Galmarini, head of AySA and candidate for mayor of Tigre, to cast her vote. And he emphasized that he expects the first results be made public as from 9:30 p.m., with an initial trend available after 10:00 p.m..

Finally, Massa expressed that he has been working since Friday with his economic team “so that the markets do not influence the daily lives of the people”.

From 08:00 a.m. voting centers are open all across Argentina. More than 15 million citizens throughout the country will be able to cast their vote until 06:00 p.m.