Economy Minister Massa, outsider Milei head to Argentina run-off

Argentina's Economy Minister Sergio Massa and anti-establishment outsider Javier Milei will face off in a run-off presidential election, according to partial poll results released Sunday.

According to Julio Vitobello, secretary general of the presidency, with 76.12 percent of votes counted Massa had secured 35.9 percent and Milei 30.51 percent in the first-round voting.

In order to win outright and avoid a November 19 runoff, a candidate needed to get 45 percent of the vote, or 40 percent with a 10-point lead over the runner-up.

Because the voting was conducted by paper ballots, the timing of full results was unpredictable.

The highly polarized election will determine whether South America’s second-largest economy will continue with a center-left administration or elect one of the right-leaning leaders who both promised profound changes to a country plagued by triple-digit inflation and rising poverty.

Former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, the other right-wing candidate, was trailing well behind Massa and Milei in ethe arly results.

'Political caste'

In the run-up to the vote, Milei, who has been a lawmaker in Argentina’s lower house of Congress since 2021, was the undisputed star of the campaign. He rocked Argentina’s political landscape when he unexpectedly received the most votes in August primaries.

Both Massa and Bullrich, of the main opposition coalition, focused much of their firepower in the campaign’s final days on warning voters against electing Milei, who they called a dangerous upstart.

For his part, Milei characterised his two main opponents as members of a privileged “political caste” that has brought Argentina to its beleaguered economic state must be purged so he could enact his audacious economic agenda.

Around 35 million Argentines were eligible to vote, and about one-quarter of the electorate abstained.