2013 Argentine legislative election

← 2011 27 October 2013 2015 →
Chamber of Deputies
127 of the 257 seats in theChamber of Deputies
Turnout	79.77%
Party Vote % Seats Front for Victory 33.05 47 Progressive, Civic and Social Front 24.21 36 Renewal Front 17.56 16 Federal Peronism 8.29 12 PRO Union 7.54 11 Workers' Left Front 5.20 3 Neuquén People's Movement 0.58 2 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Senate
24 of the 72 seats in theSenate
Turnout	78.26%
Party Vote % Seats Front for Victory 39.28 14 Progressive, Civic and Social Front 23.28 3 PRO Union 18.38 3 Federal Peronism 3.25 1 Neuquén People's Movement 2.78 2 Fueguian People's Movement 0.31 1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Chamber of Deputies results by province

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Legislative elections were held inArgentina on 27 October 2013. Openprimary elections (PASO) were previously held on 11 August 2013 to determine eligibleparty lists for the general election. As in 2011 – when such primaries were held for the first time – each party list had to reach a 1.5% threshold at the provincial level in order to proceed to the 27 October polls.^[1]

The elections renewed half of the members of theChamber of Deputies for the period 2013–2017 and a third of the members of theSenate for the period 2013–2019.^[2] Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) elections were held in every district; Senate elections were, in turn, held in the provinces ofChaco,Entre Ríos,Neuquén,Río Negro,Salta,Santiago del Estero, andTierra del Fuego, as well as in theCity of Buenos Aires.^[3]Corrientes Province held the only elections forgovernor in 2013, doing so on 15 September.^[4]

These elections included two significant novelties. Following the enactment of a law to that effect in 2012, voluntary suffrage was extended to voters age 16 and 17, which enfranchised an additional 4.5% of the population, or about 1.2 million people;^[5] of this total, approximately 600,000 registered to vote.^[6] Argentine voters in 2013 also parted with the traditional election-day seal stamped onNational Identity Documents (DNI) by election officials, receiving instead a ballot stub with a bar code and serial number.^[7]

PresidentCristina Fernández de Kirchner was reelected in2011, and theKirchneristFront for Victory (FpV) rode hercoattails in gubernatorial and congressional races alike. Following the elections, however,foreign exchange controls,austerity measures, persistent inflation, and downturns in Brazil, Europe, and other important trade partners, resulted in a sudden downturn and a consequent erosion of the president's popularity.^[8] A series ofcacerolazos organized by opponents of the government took place during 2012 and 2013 (13S,8N,18A, and 8A).

The recession was shorter and shallower than much of the local media had predicted, however;^[9] and while the FpV entered the 2013 campaign season with sounder footing on pocketbook issues,^[10] they were dogged by ongoing speculation that its caucus sought a two-thirds majority in the Lower House with the goal of amending theConstitution to allow the president to seek a third term.^[11] A survey conducted in June 2013 by the consulting firm CEIS gave theFront for Victory (the majority party in Congress, as well as the party in power since 2003) 30.3% in theCity of Buenos Aires and 39.7% in theProvince of Buenos Aires (the largest electoral district). The right-wingPRO polled at 23.4% and 16.7%, respectively; theFederal Peronists and otherPJparty lists opposed to Kirchnerism, 10.3% and 16.7%; the centristCivic Coalition, 9.2% and 5.0%; and the center-leftUCR, 7.4% and 8.0%.^[12]

The FpV, moreover, had the advantage of having relatively fewLower House seats at stake in 2013. Congressmen in Argentina serve four-year terms, and gains for the various opposition parties in2009 meant that 2013 put a disproportionate number of their Lower House seats at stake: while the FpV contested 38 of its 116 Lower House seats, a full 76 of 118 opposition seats were at stake this year (a further 13 seats of the 23 belonging to minor parties allied with the FpV were at stake).^[13]

The PASO primaries were held on Sunday, 11 August, amid high turnout consistent with recent past elections and estimated by Interior MinisterFlorencio Randazzo at over 70%.^[14]

TheProvince of Buenos Aires, the largest electoral district and home to 3 out of 8 Argentines, dominated campaign news much as it has in every mid-term election in recent years. As theparty list filing deadline on 22 June drew near, the spotlight focused on the popular mayor ofTigre,Sergio Massa. Massa had been elected mayor on the FpV slate, and had served in a number of high-ranking posts in the administrations of both Cristina Kirchner and her predecessor and husband, the lateNéstor Kirchner. His relationship with the Kirchners had been a difficult one, however, and though polling gave him better prospects running for Congress under the FpV party list than on a separate slate,^[15] Massa ultimately opted to form his ownFrente Renovador (Renewal Front) ticket with the support of the 'Group of 8' Buenos Aires Province Mayors and others, notably formerArgentine Industrial Union president José Ignacio de Mendiguren (an ally of Kirchnerism).^[16][17]

Massa's decision to run as an opponent deprived the FpV of a key ally and he moved quickly to consolidate the center-right vote in Buenos Aires Province by obtaining the endorsement of thePRO (which ran on the Renewal Front list headed by Massa rather than on its own).^[18]Federal Peronist CongressmanFrancisco de Narváez, who would be in direct competition with the Renewal Front for the province's large center-right Peronist vote, believed that the charismatic Massa was in reality a "trojan horse" for the FpV; Renewal Front congressmen, per his reasoning, would run against Kirchnerism only to vote with them once elected to Congress.^[19] The Renewal Front, in any case, ultimately defeated the FpV list headed byLomas de Zamora MayorMartín Insaurralde by about 35% to 30%, with theProgressive, Civic and Social Front (FPCyS) list headed by CongressmenMargarita Stolbizer andRicardo Alfonsín and Congressman de Narváez's Front for Union and Work list receiving about 11% each;^[3][20] were this result to be mirrored in October, de Narváez would lose four of eight congressmen he led in 2009 on the successfulUnión/PRO list.^[21]

The centristCivic Coalition ARI, for its part, arguably achieved its most significant political victory in four years when CongressmanAlfonso Prat-Gay forged the Civic Coalition-ledJuntos UNEN (Together They Unite) alliance withUCR Congressional caucus leaderRicardo Gil Lavedra, leftistProyecto Sur leaderPino Solanas, former Civic Coalition headElisa Carrió (who left the CC in 2012 following a poor showing in the 2011 presidential race), andVictoria Donda of the leftistFreemen of the South Movement in January 2013. Prat-Gay was nominated as the lead UNEN candidate for a seat in theArgentine Senate for theCity of Buenos Aires (where the alliance was strongest), and Gil Lavedra the lead UNEN candidate for the Lower House; former Economy MinisterMartín Lousteau (who fell out with President Fernández de Kirchner after his 2008 dismissal) joined Gil Lavedra and Carrió on the UNEN Lower House list for the city.^[22]

TheCity of Buenos Aires, ruled since 2007 by aPRO mayor, handed the rightist PRO an upset by giving UNEN standard-bearers Prat-Gay and Solanas the two Senate seats (out of three) accorded to the winning list in each district, edging out former Vice-MayorGabriela Michetti (who would obtain the third seat) and current City Environment MinisterDiego Santilli, and costing FpV SenatorDaniel Filmus his own seat.^[23] The PROparty list for the city's delegation to the Lower House, headed by Rabbi Sergio Bergman (a member of theBuenos Aires City Legislature) andBank of the City of Buenos Aires directorFederico Sturzenegger, was likewise defeated by the UNEN list headed by Congressmen Gil Lavedra and Carrió.^[23][24] The FpV list led by LegislatorJuan Cabandié, came in third.^[3]

Córdoba Province, where GovernorJosé Manuel de la Sota broke with the president after being elected with her endorsement, is where the acrimony between these Peronist factions was probably most acute.^[25][26] De la Sota fielded former GovernorJuan Schiaretti as the head of his Lower House party list. Their Union for Córdoba list bested the UCR list headed by CongressmanOscar Aguad, the PRO list headed by former football refereeHéctor Baldassi, the FpV list headed by formerNational University of Córdoba rector Carina Scotto, and the "It's Possible" list headed by former Economy MinisterDomingo Cavallo with the support of neighboringSan Luis Province SenatorAlberto Rodríguez Saá (aFederal Peronist).^[27][28] Cavallo, who ran as a conservative and lost much of his political base as economy minister during the2001 crisis, failed to reach the requisite 1.5% threshold to advance to the 27 October general election.^[29]

Santa Fe Province voted in the PASO election amid mourning for the 15 or more fatal victims claimed by theRosario gas explosion on 6 August.^[30] Voters there gave theProgressive, Civic and Social Front list headed by former GovernorHermes Binner a victory over the PRO list headed by comedianMiguel del Sel and the FpV list headed by former GovernorJorge Obeid; theSocialist Party, to which Binner and the current governor,Antonio Bonfatti, belongs, is strongest in this province.^[31]

Mendoza Province gave the UCR list headed by former Governor and Vice PresidentJulio Cobos a victory over the FpV list headed byGuaymallén Department Mayor Alejandro Abraham. Cobos is probably best remembered for his surprise, tie-breaking vote in 2008 againsta bill raising oilseed export taxes; though not an oilseed-producing province, conservative politics have historically been strong in Mendoza, and Cobos' unexpected axing of the measure was widely supported in his province.^[32]

The PASO primaries thus gave congressional candidates on theFront for Victory (FpV) list a much reduced share of the popular vote (around 30%, compared to 57% in 2011), and the FpV led in only 10 of 23 provinces.^[3][33] They retained a plurality of the vote, however, and by virtue of having only 37 Lower House seats at stake, will likely increase their parliamentary majority by two.^[21] TheUCR andFPCyS together totaled around 24%,^[3] with the latter likely losing around 5 seats due to the large number of seats at stake.^[33] The FpV fared better in most Senate races, losing only in theCity of Buenos Aires while winning inChaco,Entre Ríos,Río Negro,Salta,Santiago del Estero, andTierra del Fuego Provinces; like in the Lower House races, their popular vote for Senate races fell sharply (from 54% to 34%), but their 8% advantage over the UCR and FPCyS combined and their improved showing in Tierra del Fuego compensated their loss of support elsewhere.^[3] TheNeuquén People's Movement that has dominated politics inNeuquén Province since the 1960s and caucuses with the FpV in Congress, won in a landslide.^[3]

The 11 August 2013 open, simultaneous and obligatoryprimary elections (PASO) for the Senate were held in eight provinces.

The results closely mirrored the primary elections. The Renewal Front (center/center-right Peronists) received a plurality of votes in Buenos Aires Province (the nation's largest),^[34] while the Front for Victory (left-wing Peronists) and allies maintained their majority in both houses of Congress with minimal changes in the party composition of either chamber.^[35] Turnout was high, and was estimated to have reached 76%.^[35]

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, serving a second presidency, is constitutionally barred from standing in the 2015 election, and the Front for Victory lacks the special two-thirds majority needed for a constitutional amendment. The support for Front for Victory dropped from 54% in 2011 to 33% in 2013. The government faces increasing popular discontent, and the vice-presidentAmado Boudou (currently acting as president while Fernández de Kirchner recuperates after surgery) is under investigation for the so-calledBoudougate. Analysts for the BBC consider the poll results suggestSergio Massa,Mauricio Macri andDaniel Scioli are likely candidates for the presidency in 2015.^[36]

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