Chaco Primary Election Results: Governor Jorge Capitanich Falls Behind in PASO, Peronism Divided Into Four Lists

2023-06-19 13:42:22

The governor of Chaco, Jorge Capitanich was below the candidates of Together for Change in the PASO of the province. The opposition alliance — adding the votes of the two candidates who competed in the internal election, Juan Carlos Polini and Leandro Zdero — reached 42.7 percent, while the list headed by Capitanich, the Chaco Front, had –are more than 96 percent of polling stations — 36.8 percent, making him the single candidate with the most votes. Peronism, however, was divided into four different lists that, added together, would exceed the 50 percent necessary to prevail in the general elections scheduled for September 17. “As has been the case historically since 1999, I have won all the internal and primary elections,” said Capitanich, referring to his internal competitor, Ismael Walter Espinoza, who obtained less than 1 percent of the votes. “In turn, our list, Together with Analía Rach Quiroga, she was the most voted. Indeed, we doubled the individual votes of the one that follows us”.

In third place was the Current of Renewed Expression, with 8.9 percent of the votes, which was led by the current Peronist mayor of Resistencia, Gustavo Martínez. The one led by the former Peronist governor, Domingo Pepo, got 1.7 percent and that of the former vice-governor, also a Peronist, Juan Carlos Bacileff Ivanoff, 4.4. The percentage of blank votes was 8.82 percent and in total close to 53 percent of the register voted. A low number that, they hope in Chaco, will grow for the generals. The key, in the months that remain until September, will be the political negotiation to achieve the unity of Peronism.

In Together for Change, meanwhile, there were two formulas led by radicals: Leandro Zdero (Chaco Cambia), who triumphed internally once morest Juan Carlos Polini (Order and Work). The rest of the candidates were Rubén Galassi, from Libertarios en Acción, and Alfredo Rodríguez, from La Libertad Avanza, who won 2.8 percent. In addition, Germán Báez, from the Partido Obrero that was left with 1.

Election day took place in a difficult context due to the disappearance since June 1 of Cecilia Strzyzowski, a 28-year-old girl, daughter-in-law of Emerenciano Sena and Marcela Acuña, two candidates for legislators who, following being arrested, were fired from the list –collector of the Chaco Front. Capitanich, following voting at School 41, said that “there is no member of the list accused in the case.” In addition, he assured that “the culprits responsible for such an act will be punished with the full weight of the law. No one can doubt that we are on the side of the victim, that we are going with the full weight of the law, that the State in the province of Chaco is fully operational with its institutions.” Finally, the governor insisted: “A police act cannot become a a political fact”. At the last minute, when he spoke from the bunker, he highlighted the context in which the contest took place: “Each election is a message that must be pondered in order to work and improve. When there is a healthy electoral competition, the people have to choose freely, that is what we have always done. We always accept criticism in a good way, but we have been attacked and insulted in a very painful way. Freedom of expression should exist but not permanent aggression.”

The percentage of participation in the provincial primary elections was low. Nearly 53 percent of the voters came close to voting, a number similar to the number that voted in the PASO that took place in the province in both 2015 and 2017, but far from the number of 2019, which had been almost 20 points higher. On this subject, Capitanich explained in a press conference that he gave minutes following 6:00 p.m., that the voting percentage was 53.5 percent and that the same thing happened in the pre-existing primaries: “In 2019 it was different because we did not have STEP” , justified. “In general it has been a normal election, without incident. It has been an exemplary democratic day,” he said. From his environment they justified that the drop in participation also had to do with the fact that it was Father’s Day and a Sunday part of a long weekend. “There is a little more than 40 percent missing that you have to go find to vote in the general,” they said.

Capitanich faced a complex election because Peronism might not come together. The governor tried to prevent PASO in the province and the Chaco legislature had approved a Law in December to suspend them. However, the provincial Superior Court of Justice declared the law void and Capitanich was forced to set a date for the Primaries. The need to avoid them was so that what finally happened does not happen: that Peronism goes on four different lists, which did not even compete in the PASO because the space was broken.

Beyond the internal one in the Chaqueño Front, which Capitanich won comfortably and had already announced so at 6:00 p.m. when he said that within his space the victory had been “resounding”, three other Peronist lists competed on the outside: the Frente Integrator, headed by the former deputy governor of Capitanich between 2007 and 2015, Bacileff Ivanoff. He was governor in 2013 when Capitanich took leave to serve as Chief of Staff during the CFK government; another led by former governor Domingo Peppo (United for the People), who was the winner of the 2015 elections, when Capitanich became mayor of Resistencia; and, finally, that of the current mayor of Resistencia, Gustavo Martínez (Current of Renewed Expression). Despite the division that the Peronist vote has in the first round, in Chaco there is a possibility of a runoff and there only two lists will have to face each other.

In the opposition, meanwhile, the JxC candidates are both from the UCR. The former Chaco governor of that space, Ángel Rozas, promoted the candidacy of Juan Carlos Polini. On the other side was Leandro Zdero, who was supported by the JXC presidential candidates, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich. Alfredo Rodríguez was the candidate of La Libertad Avanza and the percentage of votes for him was very low: 1.92 percent. That list, unlike what happened, for example, in Tucumán, was not explicitly supported by Javier Milei. In the city of Resistencia the count was very slow. At the close of this edition, only 8 percent of the tables had been scrutinized and JxC prevailed with its candidate with almost 47 percent of the votes. In second place was the Chaco Front.

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