Buenos Aires Herald 
Governor Jorge Capitanich won outright as an individual candidate in Chaco province’s primaries yesterday, securing his candidacy for the general elections. However, opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) was the most voted one overall, taking into account the votes received by its two candidates.
Capitanich was the most-voted candidate with 36.5% of the votes. The coalition he is a part of, Peronist Frente Chaqueño, got 36.8% — his rival within the coalition, Ismael Espinoza, only got 0.4% of the overall votes.
But when comparing all the coalitions that participated in the primary elections, JxC got the highest number of votes. 42.7% of chaqueños voted for the opposition coalition, when adding up the votes its two candidates received. Leandro Zdero clinched the JxC governor candidacy by winning 23.1% against Juan Carlos Polini’s 19.6%.
Capitanich, who is seeking reelection for his fourth term, said on Twitter that he is confident that he will win in the September 17 general election.
“I want to send a wam and affectionate greeting to all of our voters, our activists and poll workers for trusting us,” he said on Twitter. “We will continue working with much more emphasis, sensibility and closeness.”
He was governor for two consecutive terms in 2007-2015, and was voted back into the office in 2019.
Meanwhile, Zdero, JxC’s candidate for the general elections, thanked his voters for “deciding to leave behind years of resignation and hopelessness”.
“Yesterday, we gave the first step towards deciding the kind of province we want,” he tweeted.“We made the first step to leave a dark era behind”, he tweeted.
Strikingly, only 54% of the people who could vote did so yesterday. Voting is mandatory in Argentina, and according to the government’s Political Electoral Observatory, voter turnout is usually over 70% in Chaco. The lower voter turnout could be a consequence of the discontent caused by the disappearance of Cecilia Strzyzowksi. Her husband, César Sena, and his parents, Emerenciano Sena and Marcela Acuña, are being charged with murder for her suspected femicide. She hasn’t been found yet.
Emerenciano Sena and Acuña were candidates for Frente Chaqueño, along with Capitanich, but were removed from the ballot when suspicions grew regarding their possible participation in Cecilia’s alleged murder.
Cecilia’s mother, Gloria Romero, had called for a “rage vote” for her daughter’s disappearance.
—Herald/Télam
