Elections in Argentina - October 24, 1999With 98.04% of polling sites tabulated as of Monday, October 25, Alliance candidates for President and Vice President, Fernando de la Rúa and Carlos "Chacho" Álvarez, respectively, have captured 48.49% of the national vote. The nearest contenders were Eduardo Duhalde (38.03%), candidate for the governing Justicialist Party, and Action for the Republic candidate Fernando Cavallo (10.14%). Out of nearly 24.11 million registered voters, 19.26 cast ballots for a participation rate of 79.9%. Under Article 95 of the Argentinean Constitution, a run-off election is unnecessary when the leading candidate obtains more than 45% of the vote.
At stake on Sunday, October 24, 1999 were 116 out of 257 seats in the lower house of the National Congress. With 98.36% of polling places counted, the Alliance-Radical Civic Union (UCR)-Front for a Country in Solidarity (Frepaso) won 43.80% of votes nation-wide for a total of 57 deputies. The Justicialist Party garnered 32.95%, 45 deputies; and Action for the Republic, 7.98% with seven deputies. Four provinces had held elections for national deputies prior to October 24; these provinces account for 14 seats, making for a total of 130 deputies elected this year. The distribution of seats including the previously elected deputies is:
Six provinces also held elections for governorships simultaneously with federal elections. The Justicialists won in two provinces (Buenos Aires and La Pampa); the Alliance in two (Mendoza and Entre Ríos); and information was unavailable for the remaining two (Jujuy and Chubut).
Sources: Ministerio del Interior, Secretaría de Asuntos Institucionales; El Diario Digital (Elecciones 99), Monday, October 25.
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