Following the explosive suspension of the gubernatorial races in Tucumán and San Juan provinces, only three provinces are set to go to the polls today — La Pampa, Salta and Tierra del Fuego. The governors in all three are seeking reelection. 

San Juan will be holding partial elections and since Tucumán’s Governor Juan Manzur signed a decree on Friday suspending today’s elections across all categories, the province will not be voting today in any capacity.

La Pampa

The province held its primary elections in February, kickstarting the electoral calendar. Today, voters will elect for several offices: governor and vice-governor, 40 deputies, 61 mayors, and 519 councilors, among other local positions.

There will be six candidates for governor and vice-governor. The current governor, Peronist Sergio Ziliotto, will seek reelection with his party the Frente Justicialista Pampeano, a Peronist center-left front integrated by the Frente Justicialista, Frente Renovador, Patria Grande, Partido Humanista, Nuevo Encuentro and the Communist Party. 

Meanwhile, the national opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) is running radical national deputy Martín Berhongaray along with former provincial deputy Patricia Testa for governor and vice-governor, in a front that also includes the PRO and the Movimiento de Integración y Desarrollo, Fregen and the Socialist Party.

Peronism has governed La Pampa since the return of democracy in 1983. 

Salta

11 senators, 30 provincial deputies, 60 mayors, 343 council representatives, and 12 candidates for governorship are competing in today’s polls in Salta. 

Gustavo Sáenz, the province’s governor, will seek reelection today, in an alliance called Gustavo Gobernador composed of the ruling fronts Unidos por Salta, Vamos Salta and País. Sáenz is not explicitly tied to national coalitions like JxC or the ruling coalition Frente de Todos (FdT).

JxC is competing with one single candidate, the Radical Party (UCR) Miguel Nanni. Emiliano Estrada, a national deputy for FdT, is running with Avancemos; former vice-governor and current senator Walter Wayar is running with Kirchnerite front Entre Todos; and the national deputy Verónica Caliva is running for Salta para Todos.

After voting this morning, Sáenz —who is confident he will win the election today— referred to the national economic crisis and how it’s affecting the provinces when he spoke to the press. He stated that the country needs “more federalism.” 

“[In Salta] we’ve been claiming along with other governors that there’s a lot of inequalities with the center of the country — the subsidies for transport, the prices of electricity or gas — this is a profoundly centralist country that doesn’t define tariffs equally, as if there were first and second class Argentines,” he said. 

Sáenz added that he has a friendship with Economy Minister Sergio Massa “that goes beyond politics,” and that the country “needs to end with hate and everyone must work together.”

Tierra del Fuego

147,064 Fueguino voters will elect their new governor today as well as three mayors, 15 provincial deputies and 24 municipal councilors. It’s the ninth electoral term in the province’s history, which was declared autonomous in 1990.

Governor Gustavo Melella —a Kirchnerite and Radical Party (UCR) member, leader of the Forja Party, and ally of President Alberto Fernández— is going for reelection through an alliance with the mayors of Tierra del Fuego’s largest cities. 

Melella will compete with the current deputy Héctor Stefani, from the PRO, and with the UCR senator Pablo Blanco, who will run for JxC. 

JxC national deputy María Eugenia Vidal visited Blanco earlier this week, and told the press that her front’s candidates are “innovative, young people” and that “it’s important for Fueguinos to be able to choose something different”.

The Frente de Izquierda, the leftist front, will be represented by Zulma Fernández in the polls. Andrea Altamirano, an evangelical pastor, will be the candidate for governor for Republicanos, libertarian Javier Milei’s party in the province.

San Juan

In response to two requested writs of protection, the Supreme Court suspended the gubernatorial elections set to be held today in Tucumán and San Juan provinces. The decision led to a political uproar, with President Alberto Fernández calling the Court “anti-democratic.”

Governor Sergio Uñac (FdT) was planning on running for a third term, which the Supreme Court blocked citing Article 175 of the province as well as articles one and five of the National Constitution

“All the polls showed the Justicialist front as the winner and within that front, Uñac,” said Cristian Andino on Radio Nacional, mayor of the San Martín district and candidate for vice governor. “It’s notable that the election was suspended just days away.”

As a result, San Juan will not be voting for governor and vice governor, instead defining local authorities including 19 mayors and 19 municipal councilors. 

There are over 6,000 candidates spread across the districts of the province. They can be divided into four political factions: the incumbent Frente San Juan por Todos, which was recently launched by Uñac, opposition Cambia San Juan (formerly linked to JxC), libertarian Desarrollo y Libertad which supports national presidential hopeful Javier Milei, and the Leftist Front.

Tucumán

Meanwhile, in Tucumán, Governor Juan Manzur withdrew his candidacy for vice governor on Friday. He announced that Miguel Acevedo, who is currently serving as the province’s Interior Minister, would replace him as FdT’s candidate for vice governor.

You may also be interested in: Explainer: Tucumán suspends elections amid legal controversy

He later announced that the elections could take place in the first weeks of June “if the Supreme Court lifts the precautionary measure”. 

—with information from Télam