Macri ally in Corrientes secures comfortable win in midterm vote

Three provinces went to the polls on Sunday, with just one delivering the Mauricio Macri administration some relief from a wave of losses.

After defeats in La Pampa, Córdoba, Neuquén and Río Negro provinces of late, the president was handed a boost when Governor of Corrientes Province Gustavo Valdés led his Encuentro por Corrientes (ECO, "United for Corrientes") to victory in the province's midterm elections this weekend.

However, candidates aligned to President Macri's Cambiemos ("Let's Change") coalition in San Juan and Misiones provinces suffered heavy defeats.

In Corrientes, Vadlés' ECO scored around 60 percent of the vote, though vote counting continued.

ECO is composed of a number of parties, most of which respond nationally to Macri's Cambiemos (Let's Change) coalition, but which also include the Socialist party.

The Victory Front (FpV), which responds nationally to former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, took home approximately 18 percent of the vote, according to a partial vote count.

"Thank you Corrientes! ECO won," was Valdés' first statement on the victoru, published in a Twitter post.

He also thanked the Governor of Mendoza Province, Alfredo Cornejo, for his words of support. Cornejo is a fellow member of the UCR Radical Party.

"Thank you, Alfredo! We are the party of civil liberaties and democracy which governs for wellbeing, and if we align ourselves with those who share our vocation, like ECO Corrientes, society comes with us", he tweeted.

- TIMES