Far-right candidate Javier Milei and his vice-president Victoria Villarruel, from the Liberdade Avança party, lead the race in the primaries in Argentina, with 83.10% polls counted so far, at 00:05, Brasilia time.
Milei appears with 30.81% of votes at this time, accounting for more than 6.2 million votes.
He needed only 1.5% of the valid votes to advance to the first round, as he was not running against any other candidate from the same party.
Despite the prominence, the candidate appeared in polls with only 20%.
In addition to Milei, the leftist and government candidate Sergio Massa, who is the country’s current Minister of Economy, should also go to the first round of the Argentine general elections. The vice-president is Augustín Rossi.
Massa has more than 4.2 million votes at the moment, compared to just over 1 million for Juan Grabois, who was running with him for the same party, União Pela Pátria. The plate has 26.76%.
Sunday’s main internal party dispute was between former security minister Patricia Bullrich and Buenos Aires mayor Horacio Lareta, both from the center-right coalition Together for Change.
The result favors Bullrich, who has more than 1 million votes more than his caption colleague, having cast 3.4 million votes in all. The plate calculates 28.07%.
In a statement, she announced that Larreta had already called her to congratulate her on the result.
The first results were expected to come out at 9 pm, but only started to be released after 10:30 pm tonight.
How the primaries work
The open, simultaneous and mandatory Primaries (Paso, in the Spanish acronym) define the candidates for the elective positions of each party to dispute the general elections – that is, who will dispute the Presidency and other positions of the Legislature – on October 22nd.
The question surrounding primaries is whether it really makes sense for them to be held, given that political parties often field only one candidate.
Since the end of 2016, it has been established that successful candidates in the primaries must participate in two televised debates . They will happen between the days October 1st and 8th .
One of these debates must be held in a provincial capital determined by the National Electoral Chamber.
In case of second round there will be one more instance of debate between the two candidates, on November 12th .
See all primary candidates
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
