Mrs. Fernández snatched close to 50% of the primary votes, clouding the aspirations of 9 other candidates too weak to contend against her re-election campaign.
With 49% of the country-wide votes, Cristina Fernández became the undisputed leader of Argentina’s first ever primaries.
With a 40 point advantage over the candidate in second place, unless the opposition joins together in support of a single candidate, Fernández will most likely be reelected on October 23rd, and extend the “Kirchnerist” era another four years.
The surprise of the primaries came from the governor of the Santa Fé province, Hermes Binner, who came in fourth but close enough to scare candidates Ricardo Alfonsín (son of former president Raúl Alfonsín) and former president Eduardo Duhalde, second and third by a difference of 0.3% of the total votes.
In October, the winner must get at least 45 percent of the vote, or obtain more than 40 percent of the vote with a 10 percentage point lead over the second-place finisher, to avoid a second round.
