[NYTr] Argentina elects first woman president

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AFP - Oct 29, 2007
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/071029094235.p8hexqey.html

Argentina elects first woman president

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Argentina's First Lady Cristina Fernandez de
Kirchner was set to become her country's first elected woman president,
partial results showed, as her closest rival conceded defeat on Monday.

"We have won by a large margin," the 54-year-old senator told cheering
supporters in a speech broadcast live on television hours after polls
closed as officials worked into the night counting ballots from
Sunday's election.

With three-quarters of votes counted, she held an apparently unbeatable
lead: 43.5 percent of the vote, almost double that of her nearest
challenger.

"We congratulate (Fernandez) and recognize her victory," said the
second-place candidate, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio, in a broadcast
speech. She had 23 percent of the vote, according to the latest count.

The score would make Fernandez the outright victor of the election
without the need for a runoff in November. When confirmed as the
winner, she will take office on December 10.

With her husband applauding on stage beside her, Fernandez made special
mention "of the man who is at my side today, and who has been my
companion all my life," and blew him a kiss.

In the lead-up to the elections -- which she entered as the solid
favorite -- Fernandez emphasized her husband's presidential record more
than her own two decades in politics as a lawmaker.

Kirchner, 57, enjoys widespread popularity for having overseen an
impressive turnaround in Argentina's economy during his four-year
mandate. He has not explained why he is stepping down.

When he came in, the country was still struggling after a 2001 economic
collapse that saw it become the biggest-ever defaulter of sovereign
debt.

Since then, the economy has grown nearly 50 percent and unemployment
has halved.

Fernandez reminded supporters of that and claimed part of the credit,
telling them: "We have repositioned the country, fought poverty and
unemployment, all these tragedies that have hit Argentines."

Observers, though, said she faces a tough challenge on the economy and
could be in for a rough ride if she ignores the threats now stalking
the country: high inflation, rising crime and low foreign investment.

"She will find it a very different challenge than that during her
husband's term," Michael Shifter, a Latin American analyst at the
Washington think tank The Dialogue, told AFP.

Her two closest rivals were Carrio and Roberto Lavagna, a respected
former economy minister who won 17 percent of votes, according to the
partial results.

A steely lawyer who got a taste of executive power during her husband's
term in office, Fernandez has been frequently compared to Hillary
Clinton, a US lawyer, senator, former first lady, and also a
presidential hopeful.

Fernandez's designer dresses and reputation for arrogance have also
made many talk about her in terms of Argentina's most iconic woman
politician: Eva, or "Evita" Peron, second wife to president Juan Peron.

Peron's third wife, Isabel, was Argentina's first-ever female president
-- but she was unelected, elevated from the vice-presidency on her
husband's death in 1974. She was ousted in a coup two years later.

Kirchner's Front for Victory party was also set to seize a majority in
the legislative Chamber of Deputies and hold the Senate, in a
simultaneous vote Sunday, while his allies won governorships in eight
provinces, officials said.

Regardless of the shouts and cheers of the party's supports after
Fernandez's win, voting -- compulsory in Argentina -- was marked by
apathy.

"Let's face it, nobody cares about these elections," said Jonathan, a
26-year-old newspaper seller in Buenos Aires. "If we weren't forced to,
we wouldn't be voting."