2019 Argentine general election


General elections were held in Argentina on 27 October 2019, to elect the president of Argentina, members of the national congress and the governors of most provinces.
The Peronist, left-wing Frente de Todos ticket of Alberto Fernández, former Chief Cabinet, and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, National Senator and former president, defeated the center-right Juntos por el Cambio ticket of incumbent president Mauricio Macri and conservative Peronist National Senator Miguel Ángel Pichetto, exceeding the threshold to win the presidency in a single round. Macri became the first incumbent president in Argentine history to be defeated in his reelection bid.

Electoral system

The election of the president was conducted under the ballotage system, a modified version of the two-round system. A candidate can win the presidency in a single round by either winning 45% of the vote, or if they win 40% of the vote while finishing 10 percentage points ahead of the second-place candidate. If no candidate meets either threshold, a runoff takes place between the top two candidates. Voting is compulsory for citizens between 18 and 70 years old. Suffrage was also extended to 16- and 17-year-olds, though without compulsory voting.
There are a total of 257 seats of the Chamber of Deputies. They are elected from 24 electoral districts–the 23 provinces, plus the federal district of Buenos Aires, which elects its own executive and legislature and is represented in the national Congress like all other provinces. The number of seats are distributed in relation to the population of the province. One-third of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies are reserved for women. The 130 seats of the Chamber of Deputies up for election were elected from 24 multi-member constituencies based on the 23 provinces and Buenos Aires. Seats were allocated using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of 3%.
The 24 seats in the Senate up for election were elected in three-seat constituencies using the closed list system. Each district is represented by three senatorial seats. Each party is allowed to register up to two candidates; one of those registered must be female. The party receiving the most votes wins two seats, and the second-placed party wins one. The third senatorial seat was established in the Constitution of 1994 in order to better represent the largest minority in each district.

Congress

Chamber of Deputies

The 257 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by proportional representation in 24 multi-member constituencies based on the provinces. Seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method with a 3% electoral threshold. In this election, 130 of the 257 seats are up for renewal for a 4-year term.
ProvinceTotal
seats
Seats
at stake
Buenos Aires7035
Buenos Aires City2512
Catamarca52
Chaco73
Chubut53
Córdoba189
Corrientes74
Entre Ríos94
Formosa53
Jujuy63
La Pampa52
La Rioja53
Mendoza105
Misiones74
Neuquén52
Río Negro53
Salta74
San Juan63
San Luis52
Santa Cruz52
Santa Fe1910
Santiago del Estero74
Tierra del Fuego53
Tucumán95
Total257130

Senate

The 72 members of the Senate are elected in the same 24 constituencies, with three seats in each. The party receiving the most votes in each constituency wins two seats, with the third seat awarded to the second-placed party. The 2019 elections will see one-third of senators renewed, with eight provinces electing three senators for a 6-year term; Buenos Aires City, Chaco, Entre Ríos, Neuquén, Río Negro, Salta, Santiago del Estero and Tierra del Fuego.

Candidates

The following candidates successfully registered their nominations before the limit date of 22 June 2019, and went on to compete in the Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory Primaries on 11 August 2019.

Results

Primary elections

Open primary elections for the presidency were held nationwide on 11 August. With this system, all parties run primary elections on a single ballot. All parties must take part in it, both the parties with internal factions and parties with a single candidate list. Citizens may vote for any candidate of any party, but may only cast a single vote. The most voted candidate of parties gaining 1.5% or higher of the valid votes advances to the general election.
Fernández came top with 47.8% of the vote, with Macri trailing behind with 31.8%. Lavagna, del Caño, Gómez Centurión and Espert all received enough valid votes to participate in the general election.

President

Fernández owed his victory mostly to Buenos Aires Province swinging over dramatically to support him; he carried it by over 1.6 million votes over Macri, accounting for almost all of his nationwide margin of 2.1 million votes. By comparison, Daniel Scioli only carried the province by 219,000 votes in 2015.

Provincial elections

DateDistrictOfficesWinnerRunner-up
10 MarchNeuquénGovernor
Vice Governor
35 provincial deputies
Omar Gutiérrez - Marcos Koopmann
Ramón Rioseco - Darío Martínez
7 AprilRío NegroGovernor
Vice Governor
46 provincial deputies
Arabela Carreras - Alejandro Palmieri
Martín Soria - Magdalena Odarda
12 MayCórdobaGovernor
Vice Governor
70 provincial deputies
Juan Schiaretti - Manuel Calvo
Mario Negri - Héctor Baldassi
19 MayLa PampaGovernor
Vice Governor
30 provincial deputies
Sergio Ziliotto - Mariano Fernández
Daniel Kroneberger - Luis Evangelista
2 JuneMisionesGovernor
Vice Governor
20 provincial deputies
Oscar Herrera Ahuad - Carlos Omar Arce
Humberto Schiavoni - Luis Mario Pastori
2 JuneSan JuanGovernor
Vice Governor
36 provincial deputies
Sergio Uñac - Roberto Gattoni
Marcelo Orrego - Susana Laciar
9 JuneChubutGovernor
Vice Governor
27 provincial deputies
Mariano Arcioni - Ricardo Sastre
Carlos Linares - Claudia Bard
9 JuneEntre RíosGovernor
Vice Governor
34 provincial deputies
17 provincial senators
Gustavo Bordet - María Laura Stratta
Atilio Benedetti - Gustavo Hein
9 JuneJujuyGovernor
Vice Governor
24 provincial deputies
Gerardo Morales - Carlos Haquim
Julio Ferreyra - Adrián Mendieta
9 JuneTucumánGovernor
Vice Governor
49 provincial deputies
Juan Luis Manzur - Osvaldo Jaldo
Silvia Elías de Pérez - José Manuel Paz
16 JuneFormosaGovernor
Vice Governor
15 provincial deputies
Gildo Insfrán - Eber Wilson Solís
Adrián Bogado - Iván Nicolás Kaluk
16 JuneSan LuisGovernor
Vice Governor
21 provincial deputies
5 provincial senators
Alberto Rodríguez Saá - Eduardo Mones Ruiz
Claudio Poggi - Enrique Ariel Ponce
16 JuneSanta FeGovernor
Vice Governor
50 provincial deputies
19 provincial senators
Omar Perotti - Alejandra Rodenas
Antonio Bonfatti - María Victoria Tejeda
16 JuneTierra del FuegoGovernor
Vice Governor
15 provincial deputies
Gustavo Melella - Mónica Urquiza
Rosana Bertone - Juan Carlos Arcando
11 AugustSanta CruzGovernor
Vice Governor
24 provincial deputies
Alicia Kirchner - Eugenio Quiroga
Eduardo Costa - Liliana Andrade
29 SeptemberMendozaGovernor
Vice Governor
24 provincial deputies
19 provincial senators
Rodolfo Suárez - Mario Abed
Anabel Fernández Sagasti - Jorge Tanus
13 OctoberChacoGovernor
Vice Governor
16 provincial deputies
Jorge Capitanich - Analía Rach Quiroga
Carim Peche - Roy Nikisch
27 OctoberBuenos Aires
(in detail)
Governor
Vice Governor
46 provincial deputies
23 provincial senators
Axel Kicillof - Verónica Magario
María Eugenia Vidal - Daniel Salvador
27 OctoberCatamarcaGovernor
Vice Governor
20 provincial deputies
8 provincial senators
Raúl Jalil - Rubén Dusso
Roberto Gómez - Lía Quiroga
27 OctoberBuenos Aires City
(in detail)
Chief of Government
Vice Chief of Government
30 legislators
Horacio Rodríguez Larreta - Diego Santilli
Matías Lammens - Gisela Marziotta
27 OctoberLa RiojaGovernor
Vice Governor
18 provincial deputies
Ricardo Quintela - Florencia López
Julio Martínez - Teresita Luna
10 NovemberSaltaGovernor
Vice Governor
30 provincial deputies
11 provincial senators
Gustavo Sáenz - Antonio Marocco
Sergio Leavy - Emiliano Estrada