Buenos Aires Province PASO primaries: Kicillof wins by three points and Grindetti barely defeats Santilli
The temporary result shows a trend towards the ruling party. Néstor Grindetti and Diego Santilli racked up 32.93%, with little difference between them. The third place went to Javier Milei’s libertarianism with her candidate Carolina Píparo, who got 23.76% of the votes.
Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof's re-election hopes were handed a boost on Sunday night after the Kirchnerite leader won the region's gubernatorial primary.
Incomplete results from the PASO primaries, with 96 percent of polling stations reporting, showed that the Unión por la Patria candidate had taken 36.39 percent. Running unopposed for the ruling coalition, Kicillof obtained 2,881,396 votes.
In second place, Juntos por el Cambio fought for the gubernatorial nomination vote by vote, although Nestor Grindetti eventually emerged victorious with a 20,000-vote lead. Grindetti, aligned with Patricia Bullrich, and Diego Santilli, backed by Horacio Rodríguez Larreta had 32.93 percent cumulatively.
Javier Milei’s libertarians came in third with his candidate Carolina Píparo taking 23.76 percent of the vote. However, as she ran on a single ticket, Píparo was the second gubernatorial hopeful receiving the most votes overall: 1,881,635 in all.
In the Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores – Unidad primary, the winning ticket was Rubén Sobrero’s (196,917 votes), ahead of Alejandro Bodart (87,587 votes).
From the Unión por la Patria bunker, mounted at Complejo C in Chacarita, Governor Kicillof called for "prudence when it comes to interpreting the results" of the PASO primaries and warned about the “drop in turnout."
“Society was only summoned to choose candidates,” he warned.
“Buenos Aires Province’s citizens went to the polls to send a message to their governments and the different political alternatives. We’re worried about the drop in turnout by a section of society that takes voting for granted or would rather stay home. It’s up to us as leaders to interpret the causes of that lack of interest”.
In addition, the former Kirchnerite economy minister said: “I prefer having people in Buenos Aires Province voting critically than remaining silent or at home.”
He concluded by highlighting that Sergio Massa is “the best presidential candidate the Argentine people will have in October."
– TIMES/PERFIL