Alberto Fernández Defeats Mauricio Macri in the Argentine Election

The Peronist candidate Alberto Fernandez defeated Argentine President Mauricio Macri in the general election and will be the next president of Argentina. With almost 80% of the votes scrutinized, Fernández won 47% of the suffrage, while Macri obtained 41%, a considerable improvement to the primaries, but not enough to force a run-off.

To have a ballotage between Alberto Fernández, who had two-time president Cristina Kirchner in his ticket, and Mauricio Macri, the Peronist candidate had to score less than 45 points.

In Buenos Aires province, Argentina's most populous province, Axel Kicillof, Cristina Kirchner's former Minister of Economy, will be the next governor. Since there is no second round, no surprises are expected.

Cristina, the driving force behind the candidacies of President-elect Alberto Fernández and Axel Kicillof, caught the spotlight and reminded the audience that she was a two-term president.

4 Days Before the Argentine Election, a Puzzling Corruption Case Against Cristina Kirchner Revives 

"Tomorrow I will meet with Macri and we will begin to see how we spend the time we have left. We are going to collaborate in everything we can because the only thing that interests us is that Argentines stop suffering once and for all," said Alberto Fernandez in his first nod to an orderly transition.

"I am going to ask him, in my capacity as former two-term constitutional president, that, please, until December 10, as I did until December 9, when I had to transfer power, he takes all the necessary measures to alleviate the dramatic situation that are unfolding in the country's finances," said Cristina.

Macri took notice an hour later when the Central Bank announced a harsh limit that would prohibit citizens from buying more than 200 dollars a month in the legal market.

At the national level, Peronism prevails in almost all provinces except for Córdoba, the city of Buenos Aires, and Mendoza, where the tendencies suggest a victory for Macri.

In the city of Buenos Aires, the country's capital, PRO mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta secured a second term in office by nearly 20 points over his Peronist adversary.

The Macri administration opted to try to massively expand the president's voter base and reduce the votes for Alberto Fernández below 45 percent to force a second round. After the polls were closed, Interior Minister Rogelio Frigerio announced that participation "surpassed" 80 percent of the electorate. In the primary elections, the turnout reached 76 percent and in the Casa Rosada, they hoped that it would reach at least 85 percent in order to have any chance of forcing the second round.

"AMLO will never be the leader of the Latin American left because he only cares about Mexico"

In Argentina on Sunday, there were around 1.5 million more voters than in the August primaries, 80.86 percent of the electorate. The turnout was well below the 83% that Macri wanted, but close to the 81% that voted in the 2015 general election in which Macri defeated the Peronist candidate Daniel Scioli, and more than four points above the 76.42% that voted in the primaries.

From the primaries to the general election, Macri won some 2.7 million more votes, while Alberto Fernández won around 660,000 votes, according to preliminary figures. In other words, Macri managed to quadruple the number of new votes added by the president-elect from the August election to the Sunday election. However, he was unable to revert the over 4 million difference between the two.

After four years out of power, in December the Peronistas will return to the Casa Rosada.