Argentines will elect the country’s next president tomorrow in an inconclusive ballot in which the economy minister of a country experiencing a deep crisis and a very liberal candidate are competing.
Polls show that the two candidates are close, even with a slight lead for Mele. Several institutes reported that the percentage of undecided voters is about 10% or more.
“The situation is characterized by a high degree of uncertainty,” said Nicholas Saldias, an analyst at The Economist Intelligence Unit research unit of the British Economist group. And many voters will make their decision on the last day or in the last hours, even at the polling stations,”he said.
“I don’t know yet who I’m going to vote for,” said serhiya Alaya, a 63-year-old hairdresser, as she walked past a small market in a suburb of the capital. We are afraid of what is new, but we do not want to continue as we were”.
Argentina is experiencing one of the highest inflation rates in the world (143% in a year), while the value of its national currency (peso) continues to decline.
Latin America’s third-largest economy is also struggling to repay a USD 44 billion loan it received in 2018 from the International Monetary Fund due to a sharp decline in foreign exchange reserves.
Since 16 months in the outgoing and very unpopular government of Alberto Fernandez, Massa tried during his election campaign to distance himself from running a country where four out of ten inhabitants live below the poverty line, and to convince Argentines that the trend will reverse in the future.
