A total of 217 Buenos Aires province candidates in the August 13 primary elections took down their candidacies after a judge found out they were running for different offices simultaneously.

Last week, federal judge Alejo Ramos Padilla crossed data of over 40,000 candidacies and discovered that 15 coalition ballots had duplicated names, meaning they had candidates who were running for office at the national, provincial and/or local level at the same time.

Some candidates were in different ballots of the same coalition, and others were running with different coalitions simultaneously.

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Ramos Padilla, who has electoral jurisdiction within Buenos Aires province, ordered those coalitions to regularize their ballots within the next 12 hours.

The leftist coalition Frente de Izquierda y de Trabajadores-Unidad (FIT-U) is the most important one affected by Ramos Padilla’s decision. Alejandro Bordart, a leader of MST-PO, one of the parties within the FIT, was running for Buenos Aires province governor and national deputy at the same time. The coalition ultimately decided to only keep the governor candidacy.

“Ramos Padillas’ decision is a novelty,” a FIT source told the Herald. “This has always been allowed in Buenos Aires province. Upon his decision, [FIT] decided to go with the governor candidacy,” they added.

“The FIT and other coalitions have done this in other elections and there has never been any problem. National and provincial candidacies don’t clash, especially in the primaries, because it’s not a definitive list,” the source said.

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According to national and provincial laws, candidates can only run for a single office and only within one coalition or party for the PASO primary elections, Ramos Padilla’s court said. Also, they can only run for either national, provincial or local elections, but not in multiple realms, like Bodart and other candidates intended to do.

In Argentina, the general public will vote in the primaries known as PASO (the Spanish acronym for primary, open, simultaneous and mandatory) to decide which candidates within each coalition or party will compete in the general elections, which will take place on October 22 this year.

The PASO primaries for Buenos Aires province candidates — such as governor, mayors, provincial deputies and other local authorities — will take place on August 13, the same day as the national elections for president and national deputies and senators. Provinces often hold their local elections on a different date.