Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s hand-picked successor conceded defeat Sunday in Argentina’s runoff vote.
“By the popular will a new president has been elected, Mauricio Macri, who I just spoke with on the phone, wishing him success for the good of our country,” candidate Daniel Scioli said in a speech from his campaign headquarters.
With more than 70% of votes counted, Macri of the Let’s Change coalition had won more than 53% of votes, while Scioli garnered nearly 47%, elections officials said.
The runoff — Argentina’s first ever — was a closely watched vote that marks the end of a political dynasty.
For Fernandez, who’s slated to leave office in December after eight years at the helm, it was a test of whether her populist political legacy would endure.
For a region where leftist movements have played a growing role, it’s an election that could shift the balance of power.
And for the finance world, it’s a long-awaited moment that could change how the South American country handles its debt problems and interacts with Wall Street.
Neither candidate won enough support during the first round of voting to win. In that election last month, Scioli won 37.08% of votes and Macri garnered 34.15%.
The election of Macri, a center-right candidate who’s mayor of Buenos Aires and the former president of the Boca Juniors football club, could signal a conservative shift for Argentina. Macri has said he wants to rewrite the playbook on Argentina’s economy — a campaign promise that’s made him popular on Wall Street and drawn sharp criticism from his opponents.
Scioli, who many had been expecting to sail to an election victory in October, launched attack ads against Macri in the days leading up to the runoff.
Scioli was the first of the candidates to vote on Sunday, invoking the name of the Argentine-born pontiff on Twitter as he urged his fellow citizens to cast their ballots.
“I ask that you vote in favor, that you go in search of the best for Argentina, vote your conscience as Pope Francis has said,” he said.
Opposition candidate Macri described the election as a “historic day” on Twitter.
And Fernandez noted her family’s legacy after she voted, referring to her two terms as President and the four years her husband, the late Nestor Kirchner, served as Argentina’s leader.
“We have never had a period of government of 12 and a half years with this social and economic stability and of constant progress,” she said.