The ruling parties of Formosa and Córdoba won this Sunday’s provincial elections, reaffirming their control over their districts. 

These results confirm a trend of continuity in most of the provinces that have held elections this year, except for Neuquén and San Luis.

The current Córdoba City mayor, Martín Llaryora, of the Peronist Hacemos Unidos por Córdoba, obtained a tight victory against Juntos por el Cambio’s (JxC) candidate, Luis Juez. With 94.9% of the ballots counted, Llaryora obtained 42.8% of the votes against 39.8% of Juez’s votes. 

Córdoba’s provincial government is Peronist but not Kirchnerist, and is not allied with the national ruling coalition Unión por la Patria. Current Governor Juan Schiaretti is running for president with the Hacemos por Nuestro País coalition. He was allied with ex-President Mauricio Macri and JxC presidential hopeful Horacio Rodríguez Larreta expressed interest in bringing him into the opposition coalition, although this sparked the ire of Juez and the alliance ultimately did not materialize.

In Formosa, Governor Gildo Insfrán secured 69.9% of the votes in the provisional count, well ahead of the 20.2% obtained by second-placed candidate Fernando Carbajal of the Frente Amplio Formoseño. 

Córdoba

For the seventh consecutive election, Córdoba Peronism won the provincial governorship. This time, Martín Llaryora obtained 42.8% of the votes (822,057 votes), three points above his competitor, Luis Juez, who obtained 39.8% (764,406 votes). 

Although 5% of the votes have yet to be counted, the partial result seems unlikely to be reversed. However, the definitive count that will confirm the results will be carried out by the province’s electoral authorities and will be known in the next few weeks.  

Previous polls predicted an eight-point advantage for Llaryora. 

In a day marked by the slow loading of data, the candidates waited until past midnight to speak about the results in their respective campaign headquarters. 

Around 2 a.m., Llaryora went on stage and said that at that point they had a 50,000-vote advantage and considered the election won, but could not celebrate “as they deserved” due to the slow count. 

“Everyone knows that the trend is irreversible. That is why today we are the most harmed. What should be a celebration of democracy is tarnished because the results are not in,” Llaryoya said from the stage. 

 “We know that the trend is already there, but I am very sorry that in a province like ours, and with the technology we have, we have not closed the scrutiny”.

Luis Juez spoke after 1 a.m. From the stage of his campaign bunker, the former Córdoba mayor complained about the slowness of the vote count. 

“At that time we were getting ready to celebrate or to hug whoever won, but the game was not over. We had a huge election, we won the majority of the Legislature and the Court of Auditors. But we cannot do one thing or the other”.

In 2007, Juez ran for Córdoba governor for the first time, against Schiaretti. The vote count was also slow and the difference between them was just over one point: Schiaretti obtained 37.17% of the votes vs. 36.04% for Luis Juez. As a result of the tight difference, Juez questioned the result of the elections and claimed there had been fraud.  

Formosa

With 98.6% of the vote in, Formosa’s sitting governor Gildo Insfrán of the Peronist Frente de la Victoria achieved an ample victory with 69.9%, beating second-placed Fernando Carbajal of Confederación Frente Amplio Formoseño who got 20.2%.

The results mean Insfrán has secured an eighth consecutive term in office.

“We have achieved a resounding electoral triumph this Sunday, with Frente de la Victoria winning easily in all parts of the province,” Insfrán wrote in a social media post celebrating his triumph. 

“I congratulate all the political parties that participated in this election, which took place with great democratic maturity and citizen responsibility. Unity makes us invincible, and from Formosa we’ll work for the Argentina we want.”

Insfrán, who has been in office since 1995, is Argentina’s longest-serving governor. Opposition politicians including Carbajal filed three lawsuits attempting to block his candidacy amid doubts over how long governors are constitutionally allowed to stay in office, but they were unsuccessful.

“I recognize Formosa provincial government’s triumph in the elections,” Carbajal tweeted in the early hours of Monday morning. “Thanks to the men, women and youth who put their efforts towards change in Formosa. It wasn’t enough. We’ll keep fighting for what we believe in.”

“No to re-election!” he added.