Argentina holds a presidential election on Sunday that is
expected to see first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner take over
from President Nestor Kirchner.
Fernandez has been widely compared to Hillary Clinton, a former
first lady, who is seeking the US presidency.
But, if successful, Fernandez will be Argentina's first elected
woman president. Isabel Peron, third wife and vice-president to
three-time head of state Juan Peron, became president in 1974 on
her husband's death but was ousted less than two years later in a
military coup.
Fernandez, 54, is known across the country as "Cristina", or
sometimes "Queen Cristina" because of her designer clothes and
haughty manner. But she has pledged to pursue the leftist and
nationalist policies of her husband.
She faces 13 rivals in the vote but all the polls released
before campaigning ended suggested she will win most ballots from
the 27 million registered electors for whom voting is
compulsory.
"Some of our dreams have started to be realized, and now we need
to work on the remaining dreams," she said in her last campaign
speech Thursday.
Kirchner -- who has not explained why he is stepping aside to
support his wife's bid rather than seek re-election himself -- is
expected to play an influential behind-the-scenes role if he swaps
roles to become first man.
He oversaw a turnaround in Argentina's economy that earned him
widespread popularity.
His policies of public spending and price controls have reversed
much of the damage wrought in 2001, when the South American nation
became the biggest defaulter of sovereign debt in history and was
forced to unhitch its peso from the dollar.
Now, however, cracks are starting to appear in the recovery.
Inflation is growing and estimated to be running at 20 percent this
year, growth has slowed, and foreign investment is sparse.
Roberto Lavagna, a former economy minister fired by Kirchner
after putting the recovery on track, is running for president too,
but polls put him in distant third-place, just behind Elisa Carrio,
a center-left politician championing an anti-corruption drive.
Eleven other candidates round out the field behind them.
Fernandez is seen as a more conciliatory figure than her
husband, but her lack of concrete policy promises made her hard to
judge.
Many Argentines figured that, in any case, a vote for her is a
vote for Kirchner.
"I have confidence she will continue the president's plan, which
is for the best," a businessman in central Buenos Aires, Gustavo
Sanchez, 50, said.
Nearby, a 36-year-old office-worker, Adrian Figueroa, said he
was going to vote for Lavagna over Fernandez.
"She doesn't look to me like she'd make a good president," he
said.
(China Daily October 28, 2007)