Buenos Aires [Argentina], August 15: The libertarian populist Javier Milei has won Sunday's presidential primaries in Argentina, according to media reports.
The 52-year-old economist received 30.11 percent of the votes after 96 percent of the polling stations had been counted, the newspaper Clarín reported on Monday.
Milei is said to be ideologically close to former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and ex-US president Donald Trump.
The legally required primary elections, known as Paso in Argentina, served to clarify which parties would vie for the country's tob job in the presidential election on October 22. Only parties and electoral alliances that receive at least 1.5 percent of the vote are allowed to participate in the presidential election.
For the conservative opposition, the mayor of the capital Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, and former interior minister Patricia Bullrich together came in at 28.27 percent, with Bullrich ahead of Rodríguez.
The Peronist left government camp came in third with 27.19 percent, with Economy Minister Sergio Massa, garnering 21.35 percent, far ahead of his party competitor, university lecturer and trade union leader Juan Grabois with 5.85 percent.
"We are the true opposition," Milei said in a bullish speech after the results. "A different Argentina is impossible with the same old things that have always failed."
Voting in the primaries is obligatory for most adults and each person gets one vote, making it in effect a dress rehearsal for the October 22 general election and giving a clear indication of who is the favorite to win the presidency. Milei's performance had been eagerly awaited because he stands outside the South American country's traditional party spectrum of Peronists and conservatives. He describes himself as an "anarcho-capitalist." Among others things, he wants to abolish the central bank and introduce the US dollar as Argentina's currency, as well as cut public spending and privatize the education and health systems.
Argentina is in a severe financial and economic crisis. The inflation rate is 115 percent. The national currency, the peso, is in free fall and the mountain of debt is piling up.
The October election will be key for policy affecting Argentina's huge farm sector, one of the world's top exporters of soy, corn and beef, the peso currency and bonds, and ongoing talks over a $44bn debt deal with the International Monetary Fund.
The economic crisis has left many Argentines disillusioned with the main political parties and opened the door for Milei, who struck a chord especially with the young.
"Inflation is killing us and job uncertainty doesn't let you plan your life," said Adriana Alonso, a 42-year-old housewife.
As polls closed in the early evening after v oting system glitches caused long lines in capital Buenos Aires, all the talk in campaign hubs was about Milei, a brash outsider who has pledged to shutter the central bank and dollarize the economy.
Source: Qatar Tribune