Jorge Macri (Juntos por el Cambio, JxC) won the Buenos Aires City mayoral elections with 49.3%, with 80.8% of the vote counted. However, if the results stay the same after the vote count is completed, he will compete in a run-off against Leandro Santoro (Unión por la Patria, UxP), who got 32.3% of the vote on Sunday.

In Buenos Aires City, candidates need at least 50% of the vote to win in the first round. Macri’s percentage could go up or down as the results keep coming in. Should there be a run-off, it would take place on November 19 — the same date as the national election.

“We feel great joy,” Macri said during his speech at JxC’s headquarters after the preliminary results were announced.

“According to our information, there’s a good chance that we won in the first round, but we have to wait [to know],” Macri continued while his supporters chanted “no more Kirchnerism.”

“With a bit of luck, this will be the last election in Buenos Aires City this year.”

Both Mauricio Macri and current BA City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta joined Jorge Macri in JxC’s campaign headquarters. Rodríguez Larreta competed against JxC presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich in the primaries.

PRO member Jorge Macri is the former mayor of Buenos Aires province district Vicente López and the cousin of former president Mauricio Macri.

Santoro said that he would wait for the official vote count to come in before defining his next steps. “We’re in a very delicate situation, a very fine situation,” he said of the tight margin with Macri.

He said that the results showed there was support for his agenda of defending renters’ rights, stronger mental health policy, and better protections for communities against large property developers.

He celebrated Massa’s victory in the presidential election and added: “We hope to build a great government of unity in the city, too.”

The other candidates were Ramiro Marra (La Libertad Avanza, LLA), who came third with 14%, and Vanina Biasi (Frente de Izquierda, FIT), who got 4.3%.

In the primaries, JxC was the most-voted coalition with 55.9%. Macri won the primary with 28.7% within the alliance. His contender within the JxC alliance, National Deputy Martín Lousteau, got 27.2% of the vote.

Buenos Aires City voted using two different paper ballots for national and local authorities after a slew of technical problems with electronic voting machines in the primaries led to considerable delays.

In a note sent to Buenos Aires City in August and national election authorities a few days after the primaries, federal judge María Servini called the BA City polls “the most problematic election of the last 30 years” due to the significant delays caused by technical issues with electronic voting machines. 

Buenos Aires City is the fourth largest district in terms of eligible voters after Buenos Aires province, Córdoba, and Santa Fe — over 7% of the electoral roll live there.