The president points to the Legislature to continue his reforms

Argentina will hold its legislative elections this Sunday in the country’s 24 provinces. The objective of these elections is to partially renew the composition of the two chambers of the national Congress.

The votes are a key moment for the ambitions of Javier Milei’s Government, which will also measure its level of support shortly after completing half of its term. The electoral appointment will take place in a highly polarized scenario between the president’s party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), and the Peronist Fuerza Patria.

Almost 36 million people are called to the polls, in a country where Voting is mandatory for citizens between 18 and 70 years old and optional for those 16 and 17 or over 70.

The electoral colleges They will be open from 8:00 a.m. local time and will close at 6:00 p.m..

In all electoral districts of Argentina there will be a vote to renew 127 seats of the Chamber of Deputies, out of a total of 257.

In parallel, the city of Buenos Aires and the provinces of Chaco, Entre Ríos, Neuquén, Río Negro, Salta, Santiago del Estero and Tierra del Fuego They will vote to renew a third of the Senate (24 out of a total of 72).

The new composition of Congress will be inaugurated on December 10.

The objective of the national ruling party, which currently has less than 40 deputies, is to achieve a third of the seats in the Lower House and obtain all possible seats in the Senate, in order to sustain their reform projects and counteract the opposition’s attempts to block presidential decrees.

For Peronism, a victory would allow it to consolidate itself as the main opposition force to the Milei Government, which would be a boost to this political movement. after the discredit suffered during the mandate of former president Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).

The different surveys do not offer a clear trend as to who will prevail in the elections, although they place the United Provinces front in third place, led by a group of governors from different parties, and the Left and Workers Front (FIT) in fourth place.

On September 7, Peronism registered an important victory in the provincial legislative elections in the largest electoral district in the country, the province of Buenos Aires, which concentrates close to 40% of the register.

The province of Córdoba, second district in population, will be the scene of a dispute between LLA and United Provinceswhile in Santa Fe the measurements show a triple tie between Milei’s party, that of the local governor Maximiliano Pullaro and Peronism.

In the city of Buenos Aires, an independent electoral district of the homonymous province, the bidding will be between the list headed by the until now Minister of National Security, Patricia Bullrich, and the Fuerza Patria candidates.

Another important factor will be electoral participation: in the provincial elections held in recent months to renew local legislatures, Attendance dropped significantly compared to previous years.

In this election, the nationwide use of the single paper ballot will come into effect, a new format for the country in which all forces will appear on a single ballot.

The electoral law establishes that the first official results of the provisional count be broadcast starting at 9:00 p.m. local time (00:00 GMT on Monday).