The people of San Juan province are finally voting for their new governor today after the Supreme Court suspended the election in May, eventually ruling that incumbent Governor Sergio Uñac was ineligible to run for a third term. His brother, Rubén, is running for office instead.

On May 9, the Supreme Court unexpectedly decided to suspend the elections for governor in San Juan and Tucumán, which were taking place five days later, after the constitutionality of Uñac running for a third term in office was challenged. In response, San Juan went ahead with partial elections, opting to maintain the original date —May 14— for voting local authorities and only postpone the gubernatorial race. The Court later declared Uñac’s bid unconstitutional and the province set the date for today’s standalone gubernatorial election: the first of its kind.

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In San Juan, there are no primary elections, but multiple candidates from each coalition can run for the same office. The province uses a voting system similar to the ley de lemas used in other provinces— a form of open-list proportional representation where parties can present multiple lists of candidates in the same election. The most voted ballot out of all the presented under the same coalition receives all the votes.

The preliminary results are expected to be in at 7 p.m. and the definitive numbers at 9 p.m. at most.

Amongst the 10 contending tickets, there are two under the ruling Todos por San Juan, linked to the national ruling coalition Unión por la Patria. There is Uñac’s Vamos ticket, who is running alongside San Martín Mayor Cristian Andino for vice governor. The second ticket is called Volver and is being led by José Luis Gioja, a national deputy and former governor.

Opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio has four candidates in these elections: National Deputy Marcelo Orrego; GEN party President Marcelo Arancibia; libertarian businessman Sergio Vallejos; and former PRO Deputy Eduardo Cáceres.

Libertarians who identify themselves with National Deputy Javier Milei also have three candidates: Agustín Ramírez, Paola Miers, and Yolanda Agüero.

The leftist Frente de Izquierda y Trabajadores (FIT) is the only party that is running with a unified ticket, i.e. a single list of candidates, with teachers Cristian Jurado and Gloria Cimino for governor and vice governor respectively. 

—with information from Télam