Who will succeed Cristina Kirchner?

Argentina, that switched to a primary system in 2011, voted to select presidential nominees in a primary election on August 9, 2015. Results reflect most previous polls, in that the Kirchnerist candidate Daniel Scioli easily won, followed by Mauricio Macri, within the Cambiemos alliance, and Sergio Massa, of the UNA alliance; respectively their alliances reached 38,41%, 30,06% and 20,63%. President Cristina Kirchner, in fact, cannot run for a third consecutive term.

Mrs. Kirchner endorsed Mr. Scioli, 58, a former powerboat champion and currently the governor of Buenos Aires Province. After her endorsement, other party candidates withdrew. Mr. Macri instead is the mayor of the capital city.

Nation elections will be held in October 2015: to win outright, a candidate needs 45% of votes or 40% with a 10-point margin over the second-place candidate, in order to win at the first round. So if the governor loyal to President Kirchner emerged from primary as the leading candidate to win Argentina’s presidency, voters also gave the opposition enough support to show it poses a credible challenge in the general election. The polls underline in fact that voters remain deeply divided about who could best tackle the country’s relevant economic problems.