Cristina Kirchner looks to sweeping poll win in Argentina

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner expects to be comfortably reelected in Sunday’s election, boosted by a booming economy but acknowledging that her compatriots’ biggest concern is inflation.

Reuters

Kirchner faces a divided opposition, with her chief rival, Socialist Hermes Binner, at 35-40 per cent in opinion polls. 

He has warned that the global economic crisis will soon hit the country but, for the moment, the majority of the electorate seem happy with record growth levels and reduced unemployment.

The anniversary of the death of Kirchner’s husband and predecessor as president, Nestor, is next week and she inherits the legacy of policies they both formulated when he was in power.

They turned around an economic crisis, defaulting on 75 per cent of the country’s 132-billio-dollar (95-billion-euro) debt and facing down the International Monetary Fund’s demands for austerity.

The recovery was fuelled by a boom in the price of Argentina’s main export - grain, especially soya. The government’s introduction of a tax on exports led to conflict with farmers but boosted the country’s reserves to 50 billion dollars (36 billion euros).

As well as being reelected, Kirchner hopes that her Peronist Justicialist Party will win back the lower house, half of whose 257 seats are being contested, and increase its narrow Senate majority, where a third of 72 seats are up for grabs.

Voting closes at 6.00 pm local time with exit polls expected shortly afterwards.

Argentina’s economy is booming:

• Growth is eight per cent per year;
• Unemployment is seven per cent, down from a quarter of the population in 2003;
• Prices of the principal export, grain, rose11.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2011;
• Inflation is officially 10 per cent but 25 per cent, according to unofficial estimates;
• Public spending is rising 35 per cent per year;
• The population is 40 million with three million pensioners.