The voting centers for Argentina’s presidential elections closed their activities this Sunday afternoon (22), with a record number of abstentions since the return of democracy in the country.
According to information from the Electoral Court, more voters turned out at the polls today than in the August primaries, however participation did not exceed 74%. In the Argentine caucuses, 69% of the population voted.
Until then, the lowest rate recorded in presidential elections had been in 2007, when Cristina Kirchner was elected for the first time. At the time, only 76.2% of voters went to the polls.
According to the Argentine newspaper Clarinthe day was relatively calm at polling stations, with some episodes of reports involving theft or tampering with ballots in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.
The Electoral Court’s forecast for the first results to be released is 10pm, as happened in the primaries.
“We have the same challenge as PASO, which is to have results as quickly as possible. We hope to have a consolidated and representative result, at a time similar to the August primaries, around 10pm”, stated the head of the National Electoral Directorate (DINE, in its Spanish acronym), Marcos Schiavi.
The provisional results released on Sunday night (22) have no legal validity. According to Schiavi, their sole purpose is to “inform citizens” about the vote.
The final count of the elections is carried out by the National Electoral Court and begins 48 hours after the end of the election.
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