PASO primaries suspended by Buenos Aires Province Legislature

The Buenos Aires Province Legislature voted Monday afternoon to suspend the PASO (Primarias Abiertas Simultáneas y Obligatorias) primaries for this year’s midterm elections in the district, scheduled for September 7.

After several delays but without debate, the bill was approved and converted into law, although without incorporating the amendments for the electoral calendar requested by Governor Axel Kicillof. 

The bill to eliminate the PASO primaries had previously been passed by the provincial Senate on April 16.

The move comes after Kicillof decided to advance the provincial voting to September 7.

After an adjournment the previous Wednesday when the bill could not be presented due to mourning in the wake of the death of Pope Francis, the provincial deputies picked up the debate again last Wednesday.

The proposal was approved by a two-thirds majority but without the Frente de Izquierda leftists or Lucía Klug, a legislator allied to left-wing social activist and lawyer Juan Grabois.

Since the electoral calendar amendments sought by Kicillof were not incorporated into the elimination, the provincial Electoral Board held a meeting a few hours before the session to adjust the calendar in coordination but Kirchnerite authorities did not attend, thus making clear their lack of interest in collaborating with the governor’s request to organise the elections within a timeframe assuring the viability of the advance elections in the district.

Once again the Buenos Aires Province Legislature was riddled with internal Peronist tensions. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Máximo Kirchner are both refusing to amend the electoral calendar with the aim of preventing deadlines being met and enforcing concurrent elections in October. That was the context in which the Senate voted to suspend the PASOs but without incorporating the changes pushed by Kicillof to advance election day. 

According to the timetable established by electoral law, alliances must be recognised before July 9, while closing the list of candidates is scheduled for August 8, so that the ballots can be presented on August 18.

“The conclusion is overwhelmingly clear: voting on the same day when combining two different methods would be chaos," Kicillof had justified himself when announcing that the elections would be advanced.

The government bill established a 70-day interval between closing the lists and the election, allowing 50 days to make the ballots official. Without those changes it would be difficult to design the necessary timetable to advance the elections, a concern shared by both Kicillof´s entourage and the provincial Electoral Board.

For that reason, the latter chaired by Hilda Kogan is analysing alternatives which could contemplate an intermediate option between the current timetable and the Governor’s proposals. Along those lines Kogan herself had already anticipated that it is “materially impossible” to organise the election for September 7 without modifying the timetable.

– TIMES/NA