Updated at 6 p.m.

The Lower House approved Thursday afternoon a bill to suspend Argentina’s primary elections, also known as PASO, for the 2025 midterm elections. Deputies from ruling party La Libertad Avanza (LLA) and allies from the so-called “friendly opposition” as well as Peronism were part of the 162 votes in favor of the proposal. There were 55 votes against and 28 abstentions. The bill will now move on to the Senate.

A key feature of the session was that several opposition blocs did not agree on a common stance, splintering the possibility of a united stance. The Peronist bloc Unión por la Patria (UxP), as well as Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) and Encuentro Federal decided to let their deputies vote according to their own opinion after failing to reach internal consensus.

The bill comes ahead of Argentina’s legislative elections, scheduled for next October. LLA had sold the project as a way of cutting costs and reducing red tape, but the opposition has voiced concern that the project would suspend part of the country’s democratic process and crowd out more important priorities.

The session began after the required number of deputies — 129 — took their seats, including members of LLA and most of the “friendly opposition.” Peronists from opposition bloc Unión por la Patria (UxP), the largest in the Lower House with 98 deputies, occupied their places after that.

The government had initially proposed eliminating the primaries altogether and introducing changes regarding how parties get funding but failed to gather support. The approval of the suspension means that the PASO could return for the 2027 presidential elections.

“It’s very important to suspend the PASOs because they are an unnecessary expenditure, and citizens end up paying the politicians’ party,” Lower House President and LLA member Martín Menem told the Herald before the session began.

For UxP deputy Daniel Arroyo, suspending the PASO will not have major consequences regarding how people will vote. “The government is mistaken: they think that by doing this they will change the electoral landscape. I think it will remain the same,” he told the Herald. 

However, he added that he hopes there can be further discussion on the primary’s structure.

Left-wing deputy Nicolás del Caño (FIT) said that although his bloc has been critical of the PASO elections in the past, he considered the push to get rid of them a move solely for the government’s convenience that “doesn’t represent a benefit for the community.” 

Suspending them, he added, aims to “help strengthen the government and continue applying their brutal cuts, attacking the LGBTIQ+ community and all those who think differently.”

Lawmakers met on Tuesday for a joint meeting of the congressional commissions that had been discussing the proposal to suspend the primaries. After hours of talks, LLA, who had been advocating for the initiative, were able to secure backing for a final version of the bill to discuss on the Congress floor after Peronist deputies backed it. Of the 114 deputies present, 53 backed the main version.

Argentina’s primary elections are known as “open, simultaneous, and compulsory primaries” (PASO, by their Spanish initials) because the general public is required to participate in the ballot, which takes place on the same day for all candidates.

Under current law, the PASOs must take place before the general elections. But often, each party or coalition has already chosen its candidate. In such cases, the primaries do not decide who will end up on the ballot but must be held anyway. The government has criticized their cost, while political scientists have raised questions around whether they truly help parties to settle internal debates and establish legitimacy for their candidate of choice.

The session also featured protests against a slew of recent government actions. Socialist deputy Esteban Paulón and members of the FIT bloc set up the trans and LGBTIQ+ pride flags on their desks to protest President Javier Milei’s recent homophobic and transphobic comments, as well as a new decree banning gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy for underage trans people.

“This is a political maneuver of hatred and demonization of the travesti-trans community, the most vulnerable one in our society,” Paulón, who is the first publicly out gay deputy in Argentine Congress, said during a heated speech. “We will defend conquered rights,” he said. “We won’t live our lives between four walls anymore.”

Before debate on the PASO suspension began, UxP deputy Mónica Macha called to vote on a resolution bill that aimed for Congress to formally condemn Milei’s comments. Although most deputies (119 out of 221) voted for it, it wasn’t enough to approve it. Since Congress is currently in extraordinary sessions, all bills need two-thirds of the votes to pass.

The session, which began at noon, is expected to continue until early Friday. Following the approval of the PASO suspension bill, draft laws on trials in absentia and criminal recidivism will now be discussed.