The difference in votes between Argentina’s presidential candidates in the primary elections is slightly narrower than provisional results indicated, according to the official tally published on Thursday by the National Electoral Chamber. Libertarian economist Javier Milei is still the most voted candidate, but his total vote count has dipped below 30%.

The final vote count shows that Milei (the only candidate for La Libertad Avanza, LLA) received 29.9% of the vote, Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) received 28%, and ruling coalition Unión por la Patria (UxP) got 27.3%. 

The final numbers mean there is a difference of just 2.6 percentage points between the three main coalitions. 

According to these figures, LLA obtained 7.352.244 votes for president, while JxC got 6.895.941 and UxP got 6.719.042. 

In addtion to Milei, Bullrich and Massa (who won the JxC and the UxP primaries, respectively), the only other candidates who surpassed the 1.5% vote threshold allowing them to compete in the October 22 presidential elections are Juan Schiaretti, from Hacemos por Nuestro País (We do for our country), who got 3.7%, and Myriam Bregman, from the Frente de Izquierda (Leftist Front), who got 2.6%.

The official tally, which starts 48 hours after the election, is done counting the official voting acts certified at each voting station. Every political party that took part in the election is allowed to have representatives present during this count and are entitled to check all pertinent documentation. The provisional count, on the other hand, is done on the same day of the election based on information sent by voting stations to the Interior Ministry via telegram.

The main reason for the difference in results is that there are always a few voting stations that end up being not included in the provisional count, either because the information sent on election night was incomplete or was not properly compiled. The official vote count all voting stations, including the ones that were not accounted for in the earlier count. 

In its official statement, authorities of the National Electoral Chamber said that no political party or coalition had made any legal claims regarding the validity of the vote count, a clarification they pointed out was in response to what it said were “public statements made by one of the presidential candidates.”

The clarification seems to be a reference to Javier Milei, who on the day of the primary elections accused unamed people of attempting to “rob or destroy” La Libertad Avanza ballots all over the country.