1999 Argentine general election

Argentine general election, 1999

October 24, 1999

120px Nominee Fernando de la Rúa Eduardo Duhalde Domingo Cavallo Party Alliance for Work, Justice and Education Justicialist Party Action for the Republic Home state City of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Córdoba Running mate Carlos Álvarez Ramón Ortega Armando Caro Figueroa States carried 20 + CABA 3 0 Popular vote 9,167,404 7,254,417 1,937,565 Percentage 48.4% 38.3% 10.2%

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President before election Carlos Menem Justicialist Party Elected President Fernando de la Rúa Alliance for Work, Justice and Education

Argentina held presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 October 1999. Turnout was 82.2%, and the results were as follows:

Presidential election

 Summary of the 24 October 1999 Argentine presidential election results

Candidates	Nominating parties	Votes	%
Fernando De la Rúa - Carlos Álvarez	Alliance for Work, Justice and Education ("Alianza por el Trabajo, la Justicia y la Educación")	9,167,404	48.37
Eduardo Duhalde - Ramón Ortega	Justicialist Party ("Partido Justicialista")	7,254,417	38.27
Domingo Cavallo - José Armando Caro Figueroa	Action for the Republic ("Acción por la República")	1,937,565	10.22
Patricia Walsh - Rogelio de Leonardi	United Left ("Izquierda Unida")	151,276	0.80
Lía Mendez - Jorge Pompei	Humanist Party ("Partido Humanista")	131,811	0.70
Jorge Altamira - Pablo Rieznik	Worker's Party ("Partido Obrero")	113,916	0.60
Jorge Moccia - Gabriel Reyna	Resistance Front ("Frente de la Resistencia")	57,134	0.30
Juan Ricardo Mussa - Irene Herrera	Social-Christian Alliance ("Alianza Social Cristiana")	53.145	0.28
José Montes - Oscar Hernández	Socialist Workers' Party ("Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas")	43.911	0.23
Domingo Quarracino - Amelia Rearte	Authentic Socialist Party ("Partido Socialista Auténtico")	43.147	0.23
Total positive votes		18,953,456
Source: Ministerio del Interior

Legislative elections

Following these elections, the Argentine Chamber of Deputies was constituted as follows:

Party/Electoral Alliance	Seats	Change	Vote	Vote Percentage
Alliance	126	15	8,091,473	43.7%
Justicialist Party	99	19	5,986,674	32.3%
Regional Parties	18	2		4.7%
Action for the Republic	10	7	1,395,447	7.5%
Democratic Progressive Party	3	1	525,890	2.8%
UCeDé	1	1	611,182	3.3%
others	3	3		5.7%
Invalid votes			1,315,844	6.6%
Total seats	257		19,832,706

Background

The Convertibility Plan, which had helped bring about stable prices and economic recovery and modernization, had endured the 1995 Mexican peso crisis, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and other global shocks; but not without strain. Argentine business confidence struggled following these events and unemployment, already higher as a result of a wave of imports and sharp gains in productivity after 1990, had hovered around 15% since 1995. Economic problems also led to a sudden increase in crime, particularly property crime, and President Carlos Menem's unpopularity had left his Justicialist Party (whose populist Peronist platform he had largely abandoned) weakened.

Himself experienced with the burdens of an economy in crisis, former President and centrist UCR leader Raúl Alfonsín negotiated a big tent alliance with the center-left FrePaSo in 1996. Following the Alliance's success in 1997, the party geared for the 1999 elections by nominating Buenos Aires Mayor Fernando de la Rúa for president and Frepaso leader Carlos Chacho Álvarez as his running mate. De la Rúa and Álvarez were both veteran also-rans. A former Peronist who had broken ranks with his party following Menem's turn to the right in 1989, Álvarez remained the country's most prominent center-left figure following the Frepaso's defeat in 1995. He also provided a counterbalance to de la Rúa, a moderately conservative UCR figure who had himself (in 1973) been the running mate on a defeated UCR ticket.

The Justicialist Party was badly positioned as the economy re-entered recession in late 1998. President Menem had only worsened its image by flirting with seeking an unprecedented third straight term, though this was barred by the Argentine Constitution. Unable to persuade Congress to approve these plans, he pledged to run again in 2003, stating that "if I had been permitted to run, I am sure I would have won." His dismissal of de la Rúa as "boring" moreover was effectively used by the Alliance campaign in their ads, by which de la Rúa's tedium became a desirable alternative to Menem's "party" (a reference to the outgoing administration's numerous corruption scandals).

Broadsides like these only further undermined his party's nominee, Buenos Aires Province Governor Eduardo Duhalde, who as a more traditional Peronist, had been distanced from the President since being elected governor in 1991. Duhalde's own approval suffered, however, as crime rates in the Greater Buenos Aires area (home to 2/3 of his constituents) rose steadily. This weakness was highlighted by the Ramallo massacre, a botched police intervention of a bank robbery on September 17 in which members of the force were implicated. An imposing figure in his party despite his diminutive height, Duhalde could only agree on a marginal figure in the party as his running mate: pop musician and former Tucumán Province Governor Ramón Ortega.

Domingo Cavallo, the economist behind the "Argentine miracle" of the early 1990s, had become unpopular during the 1995 recession. He was acrimoniously dismissed by the President in 1996 following his public allegations of influential "mafias" in Menem's entourage. His statements gained validity, however, following the 1997 murder of a news magazine photojournalist targeted by a shipping magnate close to Menem. Cavallo founded the Action for the Republic, and thus became a further obstacle to Duhalde, who would now lose a large share of the Menem vote to the unpredictable economist.

The recession, which had begun to ease on the eve of the October 24 election date, remained a central campaign issue. De la Rúa, who had earned plaudits for his fiscal discipline while mayor of Buenos Aires, stressed the need to crack down on graft and corruption. Besides referring to Menem himself, he pointed to the presence of exiled Paraguayan strongman General Lino Oviedo (who had been allowed in as a fugitive by Menem) as a poster child of the prevailing state of the rule of law. Duhalde focused on promises to combat the recession and double-digit unemployment. An anticipated runoff election was ultimately not needed, since the Alliance obtained 48% of the total vote - winning on the first round by 10% over Duhalde. Cavallo received only 10%, and much of the remainder went to left-wing parties (in contrast to 1995, when the far-right gained top minor-party status).

The 1999 legislative elections renewed about half of the Chamber of Deputies (130 seats); there were no elections to the Senate. The Alliance obtained 63 seats, the Justicialist Party 51, and Domingo Cavallo's Action for the Republic 7. This left the Justicialists in the minority in the Lower House for the first time since 1989.

Governors

Provincial elections where held in every province except Corrientes. Elections for Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires were held the following May. The Justicialist Party increased their majority among governors by one, to 15; outgoing Vice President Carlos Ruckauf was elected Governor of Buenos Aires Province, the nation's largest. The UCR retained 6, mainly in the Alliance (all but 3 Alliance candidates, in turn, were from the UCR). The Justicialists wrested governorships from the UCR (Córdoba), from the MPF in Tierra del Fuego (which endorsed the Justicialists), and from the far-right Republican Force (Tucumán); the UCR, in turn, displaced the Justicialists in Entre Ríos, Mendoza, and San Juan.

District	Elected Governor	Party	%	Runner-up	Party	%
Buenos Aires	Carlos Ruckauf	Justicialist	48.3	Graciela Fernández Meijide	FREPASO (Alliance)	41.4
Catamarca	Oscar Castillo	Civic Social Front (UCR)	52.6	Ramón Saadi	United for Catamarca	44.7
Chaco	Ángel Rozas R	Front for All	63.4	Jorge Capitanich	Union for a New Chaco	35.9
Chubut	José Lizurume	UCR (Alliance)	52.0	Marcelo Guinle	Justicialist	46.1
City of Buenos Aires1	Aníbal Ibarra	FREPASO (Alliance)	49.3	Domingo Cavallo	Encounter for the City	33.2
Córdoba2	José Manuel de la Sota	Justicialist	49.6	Ramón Mestre L	UCR	40.5
Entre Ríos	Sergio Montiel	UCR (Alliance)	49.1	Héctor Maya	All for Entre Ríos	47.5
Formosa	Gildo Insfrán R	Justicialist	73.7	Gabriel Hernández	UCR (Alliance)	26.1
Jujuy	Eduardo Fellner R	Justicialist	50.6	Gerardo Morales	UCR (Alliance)	49.4
La Pampa	Rubén Marín R	Justicialist	56.7	Juan Carlos Passo	UCR (Alliance)	39.8
La Rioja	Ángel Maza R	Justicialist	68.6	José Luis Bellia	UCR (Alliance)	29.5
Mendoza	Roberto Iglesias	UCR (Alliance)	37.9	Carlos Balter	Democratic	32.2
Misiones	Carlos Rovira R	Front for Change	53.7	Ricardo Barrios Arrechea	UCR (Alliance)	45.8
Neuquén	Jorge Sobisch	Neuquén People's Movement	44.2	Oscar Massei	FREPASO (Alliance)	36.7
Río Negro	Pablo Verani R	UCR (Alliance)	48.6	Remo Costanzo	Union for Río Negro	41.7
Salta	Juan Carlos Romero R	Justicialist	58.5	Ricardo Gómez Diez	UCR (Alliance)	40.2
San Juan	Alfredo Avelín	UCR (Alliance)	55.7	Jorge Escobar L	Justicialist	42.3
San Luis	Adolfo Rodríguez Saá R	Justicialist	54.3	Walter Ceballos	UCR (Alliance)	45.0
Santa Cruz	Néstor Kirchner R	Justicialist	54.6	Anselmo Martínez	UCR (Alliance)	44.3
Santa Fe	Carlos Reutemann	Justicialist	57.6	Horacio Usandizaga	UCR (Alliance)	41.4
Santiago del Estero	Carlos Juárez R	Justicialist	52.2	Héctor Ruiz	New Alliance	26.3
Tierra del Fuego	Carlos Manfredotti	Justicialist	50.9	Jorge Colazo	UCR (Alliance)	49.1
Tucumán	Julio Miranda	Justicialist	36.5	Ricardo Bussi	Republican Force	35.8
1: Election held May 7, 2000. The City of Buenos Aires is not a province but an autonomous federal territory. The head of the local Executive is referred to as "Government Chief." 2: Election held December 20, 1998. R: Reelected. L: Incumbent lost.

See also

• Politics of Argentina
• List of political parties in Argentina