- This event has passed.
Argentine Legislative Election
October 24, 2021
Legislative elections are scheduled to be held in Argentina on 24 October 2021. Half of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the seats in the Senate will be renewed.
Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory Primaries (PASO) are scheduled to take place on 8 August 2021; however, a bill to scrap the primaries altogether due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is currently being debated by the National Congress; the bill counts with the support of President Alberto Fernández and a majority of provincial governors. Concurrently, another bill has been introduced by the opposition to forbid any cancellation of the primaries in 2021.
127 out of 257 seats in the lower chamber will be renewed, while eight provinces (Catamarca, Chubut, Córdoba, Corrientes, La Pampa, Mendoza, Santa Fe and Tucumán) will renew their 3 senators, accounting for 24 out of 72 seats in the upper chamber.
Background
Both executive and legislative offices were renewed in 2019 in Argentina; both elections were won by the Frente de Todos, a new coalition formed by a number of peronist and kirchnerist parties and alliances (chiefly the Justicialist Party and the Renewal Front) to support the presidential ticket of Alberto Fernández and former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The Frente de Todos won 64 out of 130 seats up for grabs in the lower house, and presently counts with 119 seats in the 2019–2021 period – 10 seats short of a majority.
The second minority and largest force in the opposition is the coalition formed to support former president Mauricio Macri: Juntos por el Cambio (formed by, among others, Republican Proposal, the Radical Civic Union and the Civic Coalition ARI), which won 56 seats in the Chamber of Deputies in 2019 and presently counts with 115 seats, following defections from its inter-bloc.
Sources and further reading:
Argentine President Calls To Extend IMF Payment Period
Patagonia is burning: the politics of fire
Argentina’s perpetual crisis
https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-03-05/argentinas-perpetual-crisis.html
