On Sunday, August 11th, the National Simultaneous and Mandatory Open Primary Elections (PASO by its Spanish acronym) for President, Vice President, Senators and National Representatives were held. On a day full of expectations, the first results were known after 10 p.m., and these anticipated what the final numbers would be: Center-left nominee Alberto Fernández took first place with 47.65 percent of the votes, more than 15 points ahead of President Mauricio Macri (32.08 percent).
On the other hand, except in the city of Buenos Aires, where the current Mayor belonging to the national party managed to prevail, in the elections in Buenos Aires, Catamarca and Santa Cruz, candidates belonging to the Frente de Todos triumphed. In the province of Buenos Aires, which has the largest number of voters, the official candidate for Governor, María Eugenia Vidal, came in second place for reelection, almost 17 points below Axel Kicillof.
Once again, pollsters were at the center of the scene after their forecasts were quite far from the ultimate results; even when including undecided projections, none of the surveys had predicted gaps wider than seven points.
In this context, the electoral landscape has been redefined for the October general elections, in which the winning candidate must either exceed 45 percent of the votes, or 40 percent with 10 percent difference from second place, to reach the presidency.
This post was written by the Edelman Public Affairs team in Buenos Aires.
