Corrientes gubernatorial and state elections to begin
Gubernatorial and state-level elections in Argentina’s northeastern Corrientes state will begin today.
Voters will elect a governor, vice-governor, provincial legislators and mayors for 57 of the provinces’ 74 municipalities. Current governor of Corrientes, Gustavo Valdes, will run for re-election against former senator Fabian Rios.
Valdes represents the Evolucion Cuidadana (ECO) and Vamos Corrientes alliance, which was closely aligned with previous Argentinian President Mauricio Macri’s Juntos por el Cambio coalition. In the 2019 presidential elections, the province voted for President Alberto Fernandez’s Frente de Todos party. Rios will be running under the Corrientes branch of Frente de Todos.
Although Valdes won his governorship with 54% of the vote, this election will likely see him lose office. Fernandez and the Frente de Todos party blew the opposition away in 2019, earning 8% more of the vote than Macri’s party, marking the first instance in Argentina’s history where an incumbent president lost re-election. An attempted assassination of a Frente de Todos provincial legislator also indicates fear of a change in the province’s political tides. A Rios win today would cement a long-term Peronist revival in Argentina’s political scene, pushing populism and justicialism as key tenants in Argentina’s domestic and international policy.
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