Argentina Votes

Al Jazeera English - News - Argentina Set For Presidential Vote: "Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina's first lady, is the overwhelming favourite to win Sunday's election for the presidency."
Buenos Aires Herald: "The power of populist patronage, especially in the northern provinces, could transform what is already a comfortable win for first lady Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (albeit well short of an absolute majority according to every opinion poll) into a veritable landslide — this would go far towards explaining the current paradox whereby hardly anybody among the metropolitan middle class seems to know anybody who intends to vote for Mrs. Kirchner and yet she is 25 percent ahead in the opinion polls. But any repeat of the Misiones result (where a Catholic-led coalition bested the local machine) would have a far more profound impact on the result than the heavily opposition tendencies of the urban middle class. Tomorrow this forgotten Argentina will have its say and it should not sell its votes lightly — either individually or collectively as regions. Misiones (a province where the urban middle-class vote is minimal) last year confounded the notion that the poor have no dignity and are only too happy to exchange their votes for election-day trifles like Manhattan Indians. Let us hope that these decisive votes are cast with more mature criteria. The poor could reflect that this year’s inflation (worst in the most basic items, including such lowly staples as potatoes and tomatoes) has hurt them more than anybody "
Buenos Aires Times Home: "Is the future a woman? Is the future a woman in the US, France and Argentina? That could be the case if Cristina Fernandez is confirmed as a candidate for Argentina’s presidency in 2007."