The city of La Plata, provincial capital of Buenos Aires, has been the scene of one of the closest electoral disputes in the democratic history of Argentina. By only 606 votes difference, the city will change hands starting next December 10. The Peronist Julio Alak will be the new mayor of the city after defeating Julio Garro, from Together for Change (JxC), who was seeking his re-election in the October 22 elections.
The electoral Justice made the final count official at the stroke of midnight on Friday. The Peronist alliance Unión por la Patria obtained 166,479 votes, compared to 165,873 for Together for Change. The court ruling came after more than ten days of tension that kept the inhabitants of La Plata, the capital of the most populated province in Argentina, in suspense. The two candidates had proclaimed themselves winners and exchanged numerous accusations. At this time, Garro still does not accept defeat and is studying whether or not to present an appeal to the Electoral Chamber to review the decision.
The final result was signed by the judicial authorities after the opening of 79 ballot boxes that had been questioned by JxC. Irregularities were found in 62% of them and the difference between the candidates decreased by 300 votes, but judges Roberto Lemos Arias, Sergio Torres and Alejo Ramos Padilla ruled that the results were not enough to reverse the final count. The biggest controversy was raised by two of the reopened polls: there were the minutes signed by the polling station authorities and the party prosecutors, but not the ballots. Garro clung to that anomaly to demand the recount of each and every one of the city’s votes. “This makes us wonder what could happen in the more than 1,600 ballot boxes that represent the entire city,” his team confirmed.
The Justice Department rejected Garro’s request for not having been made within the established period for making claims and also flatly denied the questions of alleged fraud that were viralized through social networks. “The National Electoral Chamber, for more than 30 years, has built a jurisprudence through which it interprets that if the minutes exist, even with the missing ballots, the ballot box is valid,” the judges stressed in their ruling.
Before denying the request to open more polls, the magistrates issued a warning: “The electoral process not only decides who the winner is, but also gives legitimacy to the ruler. It is important that all actors in the process show confidence in it to bring peace of mind to citizens.”
The words of the judicial authorities can be read as a message to JxC to accept the result, but also to those who fuel suspicions of fraud ahead of the second presidential round between the Peronist Sergio Massa and the ultra Javier Milei.
Fifth term
Julio Alak is an old acquaintance for the people of La Plata. After a 16-year hiatus, on December 10 he will begin his fifth term as mayor of this city of almost 200,000 inhabitants. He was already in charge of the Buenos Aires capital between 1991 and 2007.
The re-elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, was one of the first to congratulate Alak before the court confirmed his victory. The good election of Kicillof not only allowed us to recover the provincial capital but also to have a majority by one vote in the Buenos Aires Senate, key for the appointment of judges, prosecutors and officials.
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