Buenos Aires Herald 
Argentina’s presidential candidates are preparing their final push before the October 22 general elections — and they will have a golden opportunity to make their case in the first presidential debate this Sunday in Santiago del Estero. The event is scheduled to start at 9 p.m and all five candidates are expected to attend.
Javier Milei (La Liberad Avanza), Patricia Bullrich (Juntos por el Cambio), Sergio Massa (Unión por la Patria), Juan Schiarreti (Hacemos por Nuestro País), and Myriam Bregman (Frente de Izquierda y de Trabajadores-Unidad) will meet at the Provincial Forum Convention Center to discuss their ideas and proposals.
The topics of this first debate include economics, education, and human rights and democratic coexistence. The National Electoral Commission (CNE, by its Spanish initials) selected the first two topics. The audience chose the last theme via a vote on the debate’s website: 58% of the 84,000 respondents voted in favor of discussing human rights and democratic coexistence.
The debate is organized by the CNE and participation is legally required. Candidates who earned more than 1.5% in the primaries must participate, otherwise they lose the standard airtime allotted to them for media campaigning ahead of the general election.
The debate is designed to provide a neutral environment for all participants to receive equal exposure. Each candidate will give a one-minute opening speech. For each topic, they will have a two-minute window to speak freely and offer their views on the subject.
Each of them will also have five separate 45-second opportunities to respond to claims or assertions made by other candidates. A raffle has determined the order in which they will be able to question each other one-on-one on unrelated topics.
A panel of four journalists will moderate the event, working to keep the conversation civil and ensure the debate’s rules are followed.
The debate will be broadcast on radio and on public television with a sign language interpreter. Not all television networks will show the event, but they are permitted to do so without paying a licensing fee.
The second debate is scheduled for October 8 at the Law School of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA, for its Spanish initials). If there is a runoff, there will be a third debate between the two remaining candidates on November 12. The runoff is scheduled to take place on November 19.
