Argentine presidential vote heads to run-off

Scioli, the governor of the Buenos Aires province and a former vice president, was the chosen successor to Fernandez, who nears the end of her second term with approval ratings around 50 percent.

Scioli, the governor of the Buenos Aires province, had been viewed as an easy front-runner thanks to the support of Fernandez, who won admirers for rewriting Argentina’s social contract but also drew sharp criticism for widespread allegations of corruption and numerous economic ills, like high inflation.

The runoff will be the first ever in Argentina, which adopted a two-round presidential election system in 1973 but had never seen a presidential election go to a second round.

Macri said he was on his way home to watch the match, calling Los Pumas “an example of the Argentina we all want”.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – The ruling party’s presidential candidate promised continuity with a few changes.

The two-time conservative mayor of Buenos Aires got 36 percent of the vote for Cambiemos, a coalition of more conservative parties, according to a preliminary count of more than 60 percent of the ballots by the National Electoral Board.

(AP Photo/Jorge Saenz). Supporters cheer top opposition presidential candidate Mauricio Macri in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, October 25, 2015.

Fernandez was constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term this year, but she could return as a presidential candidate in 2019. Ms Fernandez will hand over to her successor on December 10. Argentina will hold general elections on October. 25.

Argentines are heading to the polls to elect their next president after 12 years of being under the leadership of Nestor Kirchner and then his widow Cristina Kirchner.

Long queues formed outside polling stations from the early hours of Sunday.

Although six candidates are in the fray, the three leading contenders according to different opinion polls and surveys are Daniel Scioli of the ruling Front for Victory party (FPV), Mauricio Macri of the Republican Proposal party (PRO) and Sergio Massa of the Front for Reform party (FR).

Both sides had their own version of events as they awaited the official results. “I’ve dreamed of this moment all my life”, he once said.

Argentines began voting for a new president on Sunday with outgoing leader Cristina Fernandez’s candidate the favorite to win despite deep divisions over her brand of leftist populism, which has driven up inflation and shackled the economy.

“Argentina needs a change and we are ready to make that happen”, Macri told a news conference on Monday, calling for those Argentines who voted for other candidates in the first round of the election to back him in the runoff.

Even before any results were released, Scioli seemed to be hinting that there would be a runoff.

Argentinians turned out in big numbers – 79% of the 32 million eligible voters cast ballots – to decide Sunday’s election.

But Macri also has tailored his campaign to the millions who receive a few form of government support.

He has proven himself a survivor with a slow but steady political rise in which he weathered sometimes brutal infighting among the “peronists”, the powerful political movement of former president Juan Domingo Peron.