translated from Spanish: Argentina: except for some delays due to primary Covid protocols passed normally

Election day passed normally, although with delays at the polling stations due to special health protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Polling stations closed at 18.00 local time (21.00 GMT), but citizens who arrived shortly before that time can wait at the gates until they can vote. The government, responsible for the provisional count, warned that the dissemination of the first results could only be known around 23.00 local time (2.00 GMT on Monday) due to the complexity of the vote, but the opposition has demanded that there be no delays. Some 34.3 million Argentines were called to go to the polls this Sunday to define with their vote the lists of candidates who will be authorized to compete in the elections of November 14, in which 127 of the 257 seats of the Chamber of Deputies and 24 of the 72 seats of the Senate will be renewed. every time we vote in Argentina, we make democracy a little stronger and for me that is very important,” President Alberto Fernández said after casting his vote at a university in the capital. The president, who in December 2019 acceded to the Casa Rosada after defeating the conservative Mauricio Macri in the general elections of that year with 48.2% of the votes, arrived at this first electoral examination for his Government after a year and a half of dealing with a pandemic that has already left 113,402 dead in Argentina and 5.2 million infections and severely deepened the recession in which the country had entered In 2018.Fernández has seen his positive image fall from 61% when the pandemic broke out, in March 2020, to 37% last August, when his negative image touched a maximum of 60%, according to a survey of the firms D’Alessio Irol and Berensztein.La campaign has been shaken by the scandal of the dissemination of photos of the celebration of the birthday of the first lady, Fabiola Yañez, at the presidential residence in July 2020, when there was a ban on social gatherings decreed by Fernández himself.For the rest, the campaign has been polarized between the ruling Frente de Todos and the opposition alliance Together for Change, integrated, among others, by Macri.The two political spaces have crossed harsh criticism but with poor debate on the central issues of Argentina: high inflation, growing poverty, employment problems, persistent macroeconomic imbalances and heavy indebtedness. Looking ahead to November, the ruling party, which has presented itself to these primaries with unity lists in most districts, seeks to maintain its majority in the Senate and consolidate its bloc in Deputies.Together for Change, on the contrary, has chosen to settle this Sunday internal between the Radical Civic Union and the Macrista Republican Proposal -the main forces within the opposition front- in several key districts, but also with the ultimate goal of winning more seats in November and being better positioned for the 2023 presidential elections.” This Sunday is very important because it begins to be defined in what type of country and in what model of society we are going to live, “said Macri after voting in a school in Buenos Aires.VOTE TO VOTEIn the face of these primaries, political consultants have warned about two factors that could influence the result: a lower level of participation to past elections and the high percentage of undecided detected by the polls in recent weeks. In addition, analysts – and also politicians – have paid special attention to the young vote and its impact on phenomena such as the irruption of libertarian candidates, whose greatest exponent is the economist Javier Milei.Moreover, the result of the primary is played in four key districts, the most populated in the country: the provinces of Buenos Aires (37% of the national register), Córdoba (8.69%) and Santa Fe (8.06%) and the Argentine capital (7.43%). The final count, in charge of the Electoral Justice and with legal validity, will begin next Tuesday.

Original source in Spanish