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Argentina
At stake: National Congress
Background
For most of the past seven decades, Argentina has been ruled by military juntas and populist governments. In 1943, the armed forces took control of the South American country. Three years later, a huge majority elected Juan Domingo Perón—chief of the army colonels leading the junta—as Argentina’s president.
In 1949, a constitutional amendment allowed Perón to seek a new term as president. The Peronist or Justicialist Party (PJ) was then created, as the head of state established a populist dictatorship. For more than a decade, Perón relied on the support of the army and the clergy and—with the help of his popular wife Eva Duarte de Perón—secured the backing of labour unions as well.
In 1955, a coup forced Perón into exile. U.S.-supported governments took control of the South American nation, as both Peronists and Communists were virtually absent from the political loop in the 1960s. Perón returned to Argentina in 1972, and was elected president in 1973. He died a year later, and was substituted by his widow, Isabel Martínez de Perón.
In 1975, violence took over the nation as inflation reached 300 per cent. A year later, Jorge Rafael Videla led a coup to topple the government. The military dissolved the legislative branch, and launched a "Dirty War" against opponents. Hundreds of Argentines were killed, and thousands more—whose situation remains uncertain to this day—are referred to as "disappeared."
In 1982, Argentina took control of the British-held Falkland Islands—or Islas Malvinas—claiming sovereignty over the territory. A four-month military conflict ended with a victory for British forces. The defeat prompted more protests against Argentina’s severely weakened military rulers.
In October 1983, democracy was restored with the victory of Raúl Alfonsín of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) in the presidential ballot. Six years later, Peronist candidate Carlos Menem was elected, immediately instituting an austerity program.
In 1991, the Menem government—through economy minister Domingo Cavallo—decided to peg the peso to the U.S. dollar in an effort to combat inflation. The practice worked well during the 1990s, as Argentina’s economy was able to escape the devaluations affronted by Mexico in 1995, and Brazil in 1999. Menem also privatized several state-run businesses and liberalized trade, to establish Argentina as an economic force in South America.
In the 1999 presidential election, Fernando de la Rúa of the centre-left Alianza coalition—encompassing the UCR and the Front for a Country in Solidarity (FREPASO)—defeated Peronist candidate Eduardo Duhalde. By 2000, the country could no longer keep the peso’s fixed exchange rate. The situation worsened in 2001, as a decline in consumer confidence provoked substantial withdrawals from banks. By late 2001, amid violent protests and riots, Cavallo—in his second stint as economy minister—resigned his post. De la Rúa quickly followed suit after 25 people died during street demonstrations.
In January 2002, the National Congress picked Duhalde as interim president. At the time of Duhalde’s selection, more than half of all Argentines were living in poverty, and the national currency had lost over two thirds of its value. In 2003, Néstor Kirchner of the Peronist, left-wing driven Front for Victory (FV) became Argentina’s new president.
Kirchner signed a new deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The president’s mandate has focused primarily on economic recovery and an investigation on human rights abuses committed during the military dictatorship.
In October 2005, Kirchner was boosted by a good showing from his FV in the legislative election, which included a victory for his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in the Buenos Aires Senate race.
Click here for 2005 Argentina Election Tracker
President Kirchner decided not to run for re-election in 2007. Instead, the October presidential ballot featured a battle between Fernández de Kirchner, left-wing candidate Elisa Carrió, and Roberto Lavagna.
Lavagna served as economy minister during Mr. Kirchner’s administration. He was credited with designing the sound policies that got Argentina out of the default crisis. In 2005, he was replaced with Felisa Miceli, and became a critic of the Kirchner government’s economic policies thereafter.
Fernández de Kirchner won the presidential election with 44.9 per cent of the vote, followed by Carrió of the Civic Coalition (CC) with 23 per cent, Lavagna of An Advanced Nation (UNA) with 16.9 per cent, and Alberto Rodríguez Saá of the Justicialist Front, Union and Liberty (FREJULI) with 7.7 per cent.
In December, Mrs. Kirchner officially succeeded her husband and vowed to address poverty and carry on with her husband’s fiscal policies.
Click here for Argentina’s 2007 Presidential Election Tracker
Throughout 2007, Argentina had a particularly high level of inflation. The Kirchner government was accused by several independent institutions and by political critics of manipulating inflation numbers—revising them down—through the country’s Statistics Agency (INDEC). To this day, inflation reporting remains a major issue of credibility for the incumbent government.
Fernández de Kirchner’s election did not come without controversy. American-Venezuelan businessman Guido Antonini was searched by customs officials while entering Argentina with a suitcase full of American currency during the campaign. Antonini, who was travelling from Venezuela, was accompanied by several Argentine officials from the Planning Ministry.
In December, five men were indicted in the United States on charges of acting as illegal agents of Venezuela. The men were accused of pressuring Antonini to conceal "the source and destination of, and the role of the government of Venezuela in, the attempted delivery" of $800,000 U.S.
Thomas Mulvihill, an assistant U.S. attorney, declared that one of the men indicted—Franklin Duran—said the money was intended to fund Fernández de Kirchner’s campaign. Mulvihil accused Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez—an ally of the Kirchners—for meddling in Argentinean politics for allegedly facilitating the delivery of the cash.
Though Fernández de Kirchner’s term began with relatively high popular backing, her public standing was affected by several setbacks.
In March 2008, the government introduced a variable tax on soybean exports, prompting an angry reaction by the country’s farmers. The levy replaced a fixed-rate tax, and increased the price of soybeans. Farmers staged protests and organized roadblocks for more than three weeks. Grain shipments stopped completely, creating food shortages across the country. On Apr. 2, the unions agreed to stop the rallies in order to negotiate with the government.
By May, Fernández de Kirchner’s popularity had plummeted. On Jul. 17, a Senate vote on the variable tax on grains finished in a tie. Argentinean vice-president Julio Cobos cast the tie-breaking vote, effectively killing the government bill. Cobos defended his vote, saying, "I am not betraying the president, but I am voting with my heart and I can’t vote in favour. History will judge me."
The controversy over inflation data continued throughout 2008. In July, Fernández de Kirchner named Sergio Massa as her new cabinet chief of staff. Massa vowed to restore INDEC’s standing, saying, "You can’t have statistics which only generate mistrust in society."
A poll by Ibarómetro released in August showed that more than 70 per cent of Argentineans did not believe in INDEC’s reporting on inflation.
In October, the president announced a plan to nationalize the country’s private pension funds, saying the measure aimed at protecting pensions from turmoil in the global financial markets. Several financial institutions decried the measure, saying that the government would use the pension funds as a source of cash to meet its debt obligations.
2009 National Congress Election
Argentina will hold a mid-term legislative election on Jun. 28. Half of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the seats in the Senate will be contested.
Former Argentinean president and current first gentleman Néstor Kirchner is running for a spot in the lower house in the province of Buenos Aires. His wife and president since 2007, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was a Senator for almost a decade before running for the highest office, first for Santa Cruz and later for the province of Buenos Aires.
Mr. Kirchner is leading the list of the Front for Victory (FV) along with former vice-president Daniel Scioli. Also running in Buenos Aires are Peronist lawmaker Francisco De Narváez and former Buenos Aires governor Felipe Solá of Union-Republican Proposal (Unión-PRO), and Margarita Stolbizer and Ricardo Alfonsín of Civic and Social Accord (ACS).
Mr. Kirchner launched his campaign in early May, saying, "I’m going to the Chamber of Deputies full of love for country, for Argentines, the province of Buenos Aires, and to give it all I’ve got, with the same passion as always." He also said he "never thought" he would end up running for a lower house seat.
The opposition is accusing the governing FV of running an "unethical" campaign by using "symbolic candidates." These are popular political figures who may or may not take their seats if they win them, passing them on to the next person on their list. A court has said that this practice is not illegal under the system of proportional representation. The symbolic candidates include Scioli, the incumbent governor of Buenos Aires, and current cabinet chief of staff Sergio Massa.
In early May, opposition ACS candidate Ricardo Gil Lavedra declared: "We can’t allow the government to continue to turn to numerous tricks and manipulations to try to get votes in a clandestine manner," referring to the symbolic candidates.
Dozens of farmers are running with different opposition tickets across the country. The government and farmers have been in constant clashes since the blocked introduction of a tax on soy bean exports in March 2008.
On May 14, Pablo Orsolini, vice-resident of the Argentine Agrarian Federation who is running for a congressional seat in the northern province of Chaco, declared: "Congress has to be an arena to keep fighting for a new agricultural policy."
On May 19, the government said that its primary surplus—the budget surplus before making debt payments—shrank by 70 per cent in April from a year earlier. Argentinean treasury secretary Juan Carlos Pezoa addressed the news, saying, "If we’ve got a negative result it’s because we’re meeting all our debt obligations, which some analysts said we weren’t capable of doing."
Voting took place on Jun. 28. Preliminary counts placed former president Kirchner in second place in one of the Buenos Aires races. Francisco de Narváez, who stands to defeat Kirchner, declared: “I said one day we would change history, and that day is today. The bad politics of old has been defeated.”
On Jun. 29, president Fernández de Kirchner acknowledged that a list of candidates led by her husband in Buenos Aires Province came second to the list headed by opposition leader Francisco de Narváez. The winning candidate said that night: “We’ve said a number of times that we are going to change history, and that day is today. This is a moment to unite, not divide, a moment to join together, not confront.”
Given the way seats are allocated in Argentinean elections, former president Kirchner and some of the candidates in his slate did manage to win a seat in Congress.
Kirchner announced that same day that he would step down as leader of the Peronist party, declaring, “In a democracy, you win and you lose. This was a very close election. We lost by a little bit.”
On Jul. 7, the president enacted a cabinet shuffle. Justice minister Aníbal Fernández was named cabinet chief, while pensions agency boss Amado Boudou became the new economy minister.
On Jul. 9, Fernández, the new cabinet chief, vowed to introduce changes after the electoral defeat, saying, “If the electorate voted in a certain way, clearly they’re asking for changes to some policies and we have to be wise enough to understand them and make the changes.”
Political Players
President: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner - FV
Vice-president: Julio Cobos - FV
The president and vice-president are elected—in the same ticket—by popular vote to a four-year term.
Legislative Branch: The Congreso Nacional (National Congress) has two chambers. The Cámara de Diputados de la Nación (Chamber of Deputies of the Nation) has 257 members, elected by proportional representation to four-year terms, with half of the seats renewed every two years. The Senado de la Nación (Senate of the Nation) has 72 members, elected to six-year terms. One-third of the Senate is renewed every two years.
Results of Last Election:
President - Oct. 28, 2007
|
|
Vote% |
|
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner - Front for Victory (FV) |
44.9% |
|
Elisa Carrió - Civic Coalition (CC) |
23.0% |
|
Roberto Lavagna - An Advanced Nation (UNA) |
16.9% |
|
Alberto Rodríguez Saá - Justicialist Front, Union and Liberty (FREJULI) |
7.7% |
|
Fernando Solanas - Project South (PS) |
1.6% |
|
Jorge Sobisch - United Provinces Movement (MPU) |
1.6% |
|
Ricardo López Murphy - Recreate (Recrear) |
1.5% |
|
Other candidates |
2.8% |
Chamber of Deputies - Oct. 23, 2005
(127 of 257 seats at stake)
|
|
Vote% |
Seats |
|
Front for Victory (FV) |
29.9% |
50 |
|
Radical Civic Union (UCR) |
8.9% |
10 |
|
Alternative for a Republic of Equals (ARI) |
7.2% |
8 |
|
Justicialist Party (PJ) |
6.7% |
9 |
|
Republican Proposal (PRO) |
6.2% |
9 |
|
Justicialist Front (FJ) |
3.9% |
7 |
|
Progressive, Civic and Social Front (FPCS) |
3.7% |
5 |
|
Alliance Union of Córdoba (AUC) |
3.1% |
4 |
|
Federalist Unity Party (PAUFE) |
2.2% |
2 |
|
Alliance New Front (AFN) |
2.0% |
3 |
|
Front of Everyone (FdeT) |
1.9% |
6 |
|
Front for the Renewal of Concordia (FRC) |
1.1% |
2 |
|
Civic Front for Santiago (FCS) |
1.1% |
3 |
|
Neuquino People’s Movement (MPN) |
0.5% |
2 |
|
Other parties |
21.5% |
7 |
Chamber of Senators - Oct. 23, 2005
(24 of 72 seats at stake)
|
|
Vote% |
Seats |
|
Front for Victory (FV) |
45.1% |
14 |
|
Justicialist Front (FJ) |
17.2% |
3 |
|
Radical Civic Union (UCR) |
7.5% |
2 |
|
Republican Proposal (PRO) |
6.2% |
-- |
|
Alternative for a Republic of Equals (ARI) |
6.9% |
-- |
|
Front for the Renewal of Concordia (FRC) |
2.4% |
2 |
|
Front of Jujuy (FJu) |
1.0% |
1 |
|
Alliance Front of Production and Labour (AFPT) |
0.9% |
1 |
|
Justicialist Party (PJ) |
0.7% |
1 |
|
Other parties |
12.0% |
-- |