José Luis Espert’s decision to step down as La Libertad Avanza’s lead deputy candidate for Buenos Aires province in Argentina’s mid-term elections leaves far more questions than answers.

The libertarian lawmaker pulled out of the race on Sunday evening, around a week after documents from a judicial investigation in the United States showed that he had received a payment from Fred Machado, an Argentine who is facing an extradition request to the U.S. on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

The national ruling party is in a very delicate position. Espert has denied allegations of impropriety, and President Javier Milei has stood by him, calling the scandal a political operation.

Now, the open questions are who will replace Espert as LLA’s lead candidate and what will happen with the ballots with his name on them.

Espert’s current term as national deputy ends on December 10, although the lower house could vote to expel him earlier. On Monday, Espert announced that he was resigning from his role leading the lower house budget commission.

Who will replace Espert?

President Javier Milei has said that Diego Santilli, currently a national deputy for LLA-allied party PRO, will replace Espert as lead deputies candidate for Buenos Aires province in the October 26 election.

“I will give my soul to defend [LLA’s] path and stop those who want the country to explode,” Santilli wrote on X after Espert’s resignation. Santilli is currently third on the list, below Espert and Karen Reichardt.

Electoral authorities will have to rule on whether Santilli or Reichardt will replace Espert in the top spot: a 2017 Argentine law requires female and male candidates to be listed alternately on ballots in order to bring more female lawmakers into Congress, and a 2019 decree said that candidates who pull out for any reason should be replaced by someone of the same gender. (The norm does not account for nonbinary candidates.)

LLA has interpreted this to mean that Espert must be replaced by a man, but the decision will ultimately fall to Judge Ramos Padilla.

The ballots

Ballots have already been printed with Espert’s name, which could confuse voters — although the election will happen on the scheduled date regardless.

LLA could request they be reprinted with the name of their new top candidate, although a source from the electoral authorities told the Herald that they had not done so at the time of writing.

In October, Argentina will vote using a new single paper ballot, which is paid for by the central government. Previously, parties had their own ballot, and could simply pay to re-print them themselves, without affecting their competitors. Now, all parties are on the same ballot, and changing the details for one candidate implies reprinting ballots for the entire province.

If LLA asks for new ballots, the decision will fall to the Buenos Aires province Electoral Board. With only 20 days until the election, it is not clear whether there is enough time to both organize a fresh print run and carry out the necessary procedures to approve the ballot. That would cost an estimated 15 billion pesos (roughly US$10 million) and it remains unclear whether this would be borne by LLA or the national government.

Election results in Buenos Aires province

“I don’t think Espert’s resignation will change the electoral outcome by much in Buenos Aires province,” said Facundo Cruz, a political scientist and co-director of the Research Center for Democratic Quality (CICAD, by its Spanish acronym). “I believe the scandal adds up to other scandals. It adds another layer of negativity for the government,” he said, citing the $LIBRA and disability agency corruption scandals. The former directly involved Milei, while the latter centered around his sister and secretary-general, Karina Milei, who is also LLA’s leader.

“This does not guarantee growth in votes for Peronism,” Cruz added. Instead, he said, voting in the province will be particularly influenced by the economy: those hit the hardest by Milei’s austerity policies are more likely to vote for opposition lists, like in the September local elections in Buenos Aires province.