Corrientes will vote this Sunday to elect a new governor and partially renew both houses of the provincial Congress. Voters will also pick authorities in over 70 municipalities. 

Corrientes is one of ten jurisdictions (nine provinces and Buenos Aires City) that decided to hold local elections separately from national-level legislative midterms this year, a process known as desdoblamiento. There is only one of these elections left (Buenos Aires province, on September 7) before all Argentines go to the polls on October 26 to vote for national deputies and senators.

What will Corrientes vote for

Voting data shows that 950,576 people are eligible to vote in Sunday’s polls. The most salient issue is that the province will elect a new governor, as incumbent Gustavo Valdés is in his second term and thus unable to run again.

There are seven tickets competing for the province’s highest post. Running for the ruling party’s alliance, Vamos Corrientes, is Juan Pablo Valdés, mayor of the city of Ituzaingó and brother of the current governor. He is accompanied by current deputy governor Néstor Pedro Braillard Poccard, who is seeking a new term.  

His main rival is Peronist Martín “Tincho” Ascúa, current mayor of Paso de los Libres. Ascúa, who will run under the banner Limpiar Corrientes, is very close to former two-time President Cristina Kirchner. In fact, the last political rally Kirchner attended before the Supreme Court confirmed her conviction in the Vialidad case was in Corrientes. 

National ruling party La Libertad Avanza (LLA) will field a ticket led by national deputy Lisandro Almirón. The Milei administration showed its support for Almirón this past week as Presidential Secretary Karina Milei and Lower House speaker Martín Menem flew to Corrientes amidst the bribery scandal that is rocking the government to appear alongside the candidate. 

Another candidate will be former Governor Ricardo Colombi, mentor of incumbent Valdés before the two had a falling out. Colombi could potentially hurt the ruling party’s chances if he does well, as the two share roughly the same electorate.

Corrientes has a two-round system to elect a governor. This means that, for a candidate to win outright, they need to secure more than 40% of the vote or have a lead of at least 10 percentage points over whoever comes in second. If these conditions are not met, there will be a run-off between the two most voted candidates.

The province will also vote on legislative seats and local authorities. Five provincial senators and 18 deputies will be renewed, while 73 municipalities will vote for mayors and councillors. 

-With information from Ámbito