Presidential and parliamentary elections in Argentina 2003

The 2003 presidential and parliamentary elections in Argentina began on April 27, 2003 with the first round of the presidential election and ended on November 23 with the last partial elections to the House of Representatives and the Senate .

The elections were heavily influenced by the Argentina crisis , which particularly damaged the Unión Cívica Radical , which ruled until 2001 , but also contributed to the splitting of the Peronist Party (Partido Justicialista, PJ) into several wings.

There was a novelty in the presidential election: Since no candidate achieved the required 45% in the first ballot, a runoff election was scheduled. The first place in the first ballot, Carlos Menem , resigned as a candidate shortly before the runoff election, whereby the second placed Néstor Kirchner became the election winner. In the parliamentary elections, the PJ was strengthened, the UCR suffered losses, which, however, were far less pronounced than in the presidential elections.

History and candidacies

After the height of the Argentina crisis on December 19 and 20, 2001, the political situation was chaotic.

UCR and spin-offs

Several groups split off from the UCR , the ruling party until 2001, and ran for elections with their own lists.

• In 2001 the grouping Argentinos para una República de Iguales was formed around Elisa Carrió , which comprised part of the left wing of the party as well as individual members of the Partido Socialista Popular , which was represented in the Frente País Solidario at the time and which was responsible for the policy of the Fernando de la Rúas government no longer wanted to contribute. For the election, Carrió formed the Alliance Afirmación para una República Igualitaria (ARI), which later became a full-fledged political party (today Coalición Cívica ARI ).
• Another UCR spin-off was Recrear para el Crecimiento , which brought together the liberal and conservative forces in the party and supported the former economy minister Ricardo López Murphy (now absorbed into the Propuesta Republicana ).
• The UCR itself had suffered a massive loss of confidence among voters as a result of the crisis and was severely weakened. The official UCR candidate Leopoldo Moreau had also narrowly prevailed against Rodolfo Terragno in the internal elections .

The Confederation (permanent party alliance) Frente País Solidario (FREPASO), which was allied with the UCR in the Alianza coalition until 2001, collapsed after the resignation of De la Rúa's vice-president, Carlos “Chacho” Álvarez , and the breakup of the Alianza government at the end of 2001. PAIS , one of the former member parties of FREPASO, supported Kirchner's Frente para la Victoria , while the larger part-party Frente Grande ran independently in some provinces (including Cordoba) and was also able to win some seats.

Partido Justicialista

The Peronists ( PJ ) ran with three different lists because they could not agree on a common candidate.

• Former President Carlos Menem , then still a leading figure of the conservative-liberal party wing, had lost many supporters in the party after several corruption scandals; he entered under the name Frente por la Lealtad , allied with the conservative UCéDé .
• Adolfo Rodríguez Saá , who ruled as president for a short time at the end of 2001 and was also assigned to the right wing, was unable to unite the party behind him. He entered under the acronym Frente Movimiento Popular-Unión y Libertad .
• Transitional President Eduardo Duhalde supported the then almost unknown governor of the Santa Cruz province , Néstor Kirchner , who was considered a representative of the left wing, which was oriented towards social democracy. The electoral alliance Frente para la Victoria , which included several small parties in addition to the left wing of the PJ, was built around him . The name of the alliance had been used by Kirchner from his political platform in Santa Cruz at the provincial level since 1989.

Other parties

In addition to the UCR and PJ camps, several small parties ran for election. The more promising among them were the recently reunited Partido Socialista with candidate Alfredo Bravo (who died shortly after the election), the socialist alliance Izquierda Unida with Patricia Walsh and the Trotskyist Partido Obrero with Jorge Altamira .

Presidential election

Result of the first ballot
Political party	Candidates (President-Vice President)		be right	percent
Alianza Frente por la Lealtad - UCeDe		Carlos Menem - Juan Carlos Romero	4,740,907	24.45
Alianza Frente para la Victoria		Néstor Kirchner - Daniel Scioli	4,312,517	22.24
Alianza Movimiento Federal para Recrear el Crecimiento		Ricardo López Murphy - Gómez Diez	3,173,475	16.37
Frente Movimiento Popular Unión y Libertad		Adolfo Rodríguez Saá - Melchor Posse	2,735,829	14.11
Afirmación para una República Igualitaria		Elisa Carrió - Gutiérrez	2,723,574	14.05
Unión Cívica Radical		Leopoldo Moreau - Mario Losada	453.360	2.34
Alianza Izquierda Unida		Patricia Walsh - Parrilli	332.863	1.72
Partido Socialista		Alfredo Bravo - Rubén Giustiniani	217,385	1.12
Partido Obrero		Jorge Altamira - Salas	139,399	0.72
Confederación para que se Vayan Todos		Enrique Venturino - Pinto Kramer	129,764	0.67
Partido Humanista		Guillermo Sullings - Ambrosio	105,702	0.55
Tiempo de Cambios-Unión Popular		José Carlos Arcagni - Zenof	63,449	0.33
Partido Socialista Auténtico		Mario Mazziteli - Camps	50,239	0.26
Movimiento de Integración y Desarrollo		Carlos Zaffore - Perie	47,951	0.25
Partido Demócrata Cristiano		Manuel Herrera - Cúneo	47,750	0.25
Partido Popular de la Reconstrucción		Gustavo Breide Obeid - Vasena	42,460	0.22
Unidos o Dominados		Juan Mussa - Suarez	39.505	0.20
Movimiento por la Dignidad y la Independencia		Ricardo Terán - Bonacci	31,766	0.16
Valid votes			19,387,895	-
Source:

Valid votes				19,387,895	97.28
No voting slip submitted ( " voto en blanco " )				196,574	0.99
Invalid				345,642	1.73
Total voters				19.930.111	100

voter turnout				19.930.111	78.21
Eligible voters				25,480,440	100

General election

Chamber of Deputies

The elections to the Chamber of Deputies took place on April 27, August 24 and 31, September 7, 14 and 28, October 5, 19 and 26, and on November 9, 16 and 23, 2003 . Half of the seats (130 of 260) were replaced.

District	UCR	PJ	ARI	Regional parties	Total number of seats in the district
Buenos Aires	5	19th	4th	8th	35
Autonomous City of Buenos Aires	-	3	-	9	12
Catamarca	2	-	-	-	2
Chaco	2	1		-	3
Chubut	1	2	-	-	3
Cordoba	2	4th	-	3	9
Corrientes	1	1	-	2	4th
Entre Ríos	1	2	1	-	4th
Formosa	-	3	-	-	3
Jujuy	1	2	-	-	3
La Pampa	1	1	-	-	2
La Rioja	1	2	-	-	3
Mendoza	3	2	-	-	5
Misiones	-	2	-	2	4th
Neuquén	-	-	-	2	2
Río Negro	2	1	-	-	3
Salta	-	3	-	1	4th
San Juan	-	2	-	1	3
San Luis	-	2	-	-	2
Santa Cruz	-	2	-	-	2
Santa Fe	2	6th	1	1	10
Santiago del Estero	-	2	-	2	4th
Tierra del Fuego	1	1	1	-	3
Tucuman	-	2	-	3	5
Source :

senate

Senate elections were also held in a third of the districts; 24 senatorial seats in 8 provinces (three per province) were up for election. Election dates were September 7, October 5, October 26, November 9 and November 23, 2003.

District	UCR	PJ	Regional parties	Total number of seats in the district
Catamarca	2	1		3
Chubut	1	2		3
Cordoba		2	1	3
Corrientes	1	1	1	3
La Pampa	1	2		3
Mendoza	1	2		3
Santa Fe		2	1	3
Tucuman		1	2	3
total	6th	14th	4th	24
Source :

Web links

• Runoff between Menem and Kirchner , Spiegel Online , April 28, 2003

Notes and individual references

Remarks

1. ↑ Parties: Conservador Popular - Cambio con Justicia Social - Por un Nuevo Jujuy (Jujuy) - Demócrata Conservador (Buenos Aires) - Movimiento Popular Unido (Santiago del Estero) - Movimiento Popular Cordobés (Córdoba) - Todos por los Jubilados (Capital Federal) - Movimiento de Acción Vecinal (Córdoba) - Opción Federal (Neuquén) - Encuentro Popular (Santiago del Estero) - Reconquista (Capital Federal) - De la Generación Intermedia (Capital Federal) - Frente de los Jubilados - Movimiento por la Justicia Social (Buenos Aires)
2. ↑ Parties: De la Victoria - Nueva Dirigencia (Jujuy) - Nueva Dirigencia (Capital Federal) - Nacionalista Constitucional - Política Abierta para la Integración Social - Progreso Social (Buenos Aires) - Gestión Estado y Sociedad Todos Ahora (Capital Federal) - Partido Popular (Corrientes) - Acción Popular (Córdoba) - Unión Popular (Salta) - Movimiento de Renovación Cívica (Jujuy) - Acción para el Cambio (Córdoba) - Memoria y Movilización Social (Buenos Aires) - Memoria y Movilización Social (Capital Federal) - Santiago Viable (Santiago del Estero) - Frente de Integración Social para un Cambio en Libertad (Mendoza)
3. ^ Political parties: Recrear para el Crecimiento - Confederación Movimiento Federal
4. ↑ Parties: Unión y Libertad (San Luis) - Unión y Libertad (Buenos Aires) - Confederación Laborista - Unión Popular
5. ↑ Parties: Afirmación para una República Igualitaria - Partido Intransigente
6. ^ Parties: Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores - Comunista
7. ^ Unión Cívica Radical and Allies.
8. ^ Partido Justicialista and Allies.
9. ^ Afirmación para una República Igualitaria and Allies.
10. ↑ regional parties and alliances with successful profit of credentials: Frente Popular Bonaerense and Alianza Federalista por Buenos Aires, in the province of Buenos Aires ; Compromiso para el Cambio , Autodeterminación y Libertad , Partido de la Ciudad, Alianza para Recrear Buenos Aires and Partido de la Revolución Democrática in the autonomous city of Buenos Aires ; Frente Nuevo / Frente Grande in Cordoba ; Partido Nuevo / Partido Federal un Partido Demócrata Progresista / Partido Conservador Popular / Frente Proyecto Corrientes in Corrientes ; Front Renovador in Misiones ; Movimiento Popular Neuquino in Neuquén ; Partido Renovador de Salta in Salta ; Movimiento Vida y Compromiso in San Juan ; Partido Socialista in Santa Fe ; Encuentro Popular y Frente por la Lealtad in Santiago del Estero ; Fuerza Republicana and Frente Cívico in Tucumán .
11. ^ Unión Cívica Radical and Allies.
12. ^ Partido Justicialista and Allies.
13. ↑ Started as Frente Cívico y Social .
14. ^ Partido Nuevo contra la Corrupción para la Honestidad y la Transparencia
15. ^ Partido Nuevo (Corrientes)
16. ^ Partido Socialista
17. ^ Fuerza Republicana

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Con críticas al Gobierno, Carrió estrenó su propio movimiento , La Nación , May 18, 2001
2. ^ Leopoldo Moreau, nuevo candidato presidencial argentino , El Universo, February 17, 2003
3. ^ Election results in 1989 in the provincial elections in Santa Cruz ( Memento of the original from March 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Andy Tow's Election Atlas, accessed May 1, 2012 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Argentine Ministry of the Interior ( Memento of the original from June 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - National Electoral Directorate.