Two Peronist senators confirmed on Saturday that they would support the Ficha Limpia bill, which would severely hurt Cristina Kirchner’s chances to run in the upcoming midterm elections.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court made its first move in the Vialidad case, in which Kirchner was convicted of fraud.

The Ficha Limpia bill, endorsed by the ruling party La Libertad Avanza, aims to prevent people who have a conviction for corruption confirmed by two separate courts from running for office and becoming elected public officials. The draft law includes offenses such as embezzlement, engaging in affairs incompatible with being a public official, and unlawful enrichment.

That would include former President Kirchner, due to the upheld fraud conviction in November. Argentina’s Federal Cassation Chamber upheld the ruling against her in the case, known locally as “Vialidad.” 

Kirchner was first convicted in December 2022 and sentenced to six years in prison and a lifelong ban on holding public office. The court found that she had arranged for 51 public works contracts in the Santa Cruz province to go to a company belonging to family friend Lázaro Báez. Kirchner’s attorneys appealed the decision in order to take it to the Supreme Court.

On Saturday, two national senators from the Santa Cruz province, Natalia Gadano and José María Carambia, confirmed their support for the bill. Now, the government paved the way to obtain a quorum and approve the bill, which would change the conditions for candidacies in the middle of the electoral year.

In a post on social media, both senators demanded that the vice-president and head of the Senate, Victoria Villarruel, call a session in the Upper House for next week.

Last April 9, the discussion for the Ficha Limpia bill fell through in the Senate due to a lack of quorum. Carambia and Gadano’s opinion had been one of the main points of attention as the Peronist Kirchnerist bloc has 34 seats out of 72 and had already confirmed its rejection of the Ficha Limpia bill. Since 37 seats are needed to grant a quorum for the debate, the confirmation of Carambia and Gadano’s support for Ficha Limpia paved the way for the bill, which was signed by President Javier Milei himself.

On Saturday, Kirchner made a thinly-veiled allusion to Ficha Limpia in an X post saying that her government was responsible for one of the “periods of highest participation of the workers in the GDP” and said that, because of that, she is being “persecuted, convicted and barred.”

The current law only bans people from running for office when they have a final criminal conviction, and there are no possible appeals to be made before Argentine courts. Since Kirchner’s conviction has not been confirmed by the Supreme Court, she still has a chance of running. However, the Senate’s passing of Ficha Limpia is only one of two ways that could change.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard the appeal filed by prosecutor Mario Villar and notified General Prosecutor Eduardo Casal. Villar’s appeal aimed to double Cristina Kirchner’s sentence to twelve years in prison and convict her of “illicit association.” If the Supreme Court confirms Kirchner’s conviction, that could also put an end to Kirchner’s bid.
Buenos Aires province will hold its legislative elections on September 7, over a month before the October 26 national vote. Kirchner has yet to confirm whether she would run in either of those elections.