Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta has said during interviews that Jorge Macri, a minister in the City Government and cousin of ex-president Mauricio Macri, could run for Mayor of Buenos Aires in the upcoming elections, amid concerns over whether Jorge meets the city’s domicile requirements.  

His comments come after days of turmoil within their party, Propuesta Republicana (PRO), after the mayor announced that the city would have separate ballots for local and national elections. 

In an interview with Radio Rivadavia, Rodríguez Larreta discussed the debate over whether Jorge Macri is eligible to run for city mayor, as some have pointed out that his residence in the Buenos Aires Province, where he was the Vicente López governor between 2011 and 2021, may rule him out. 

“I spoke with him and somehow he showed me the evidence that he could be a candidate,” said Larreta, “but the decision will be made by the judiciary.” 

According to some experts, Jorge Macri could be barred from running because he is not resident in the city of Buenos Aires, which is mandatory for any prospective candidate. According to the local constitution, city mayor candidates must have had a permanent residency in the city at least for five years prior to launching their candidacy. 

In 2010, Civic Coalition prospective candidate Adrián Pérez requested the permission of the Superior Justice Court (TSJ) to run in spite of not being able to demonstrate that he had lived in the capital for five years, and the court rejected his request. This could present a negative precedent for Jorge Macri, who will have to face a court in order to confirm his run. 

However, BA City has had its own electoral court since 2022, which will be in charge of deciding who is eligible to run. 

After announcing it on Monday, Larreta’s controversial ballot measure was officialized in an executive order today: residents of the capital will vote for their local representatives in a single electronic ballot, where they will mark the candidates they choose for each position. For the national representatives, they will continue to use the traditional paper ballot. 

The decision sparked fierce disputes with other leaders in his party who appeared to feel the change could disadvantage their preferred candidates to govern the capital.

Jorge Macri is one of those candidates, and carries the support of his cousin, Mauricio, who is pushing for him to be the next mayor of the city. 

Jorge had joined the wave of criticism against Rodríguez Larreta’s decision two days ago, when he said on LN+ that “it was a bad idea”. Although he didn’t make a statement on social media, he liked the Twitter thread that his cousin wrote attacking the split ballot when the change of rules was still a rumor. 

“It’s not true that this measure favors one and harms the other, because everyone is running under equal conditions – there are no favorites,” Larreta said in TN.