Reuters/Buenos Aires
Centre-left Argentine President Cristina Fernandez looks set to win a second term in October and deepen her interventionist policies after thrashing rivals in a primary election, results showed yesterday.With nearly 97% of polling stations counted, Fernandez had just over 50% of the votes - 38 points ahead of her closest contenders.Sunday’s primary was effectively a nationwide opinion poll because the parties had already chosen their candidates and voters could cast ballots for any candidate.Fernandez has rankled Wall Street by imposing price controls, nationalising private pension funds and publishing inflation data far below private estimates. But Argentine voters put her on track for a first-round win on Oct. 23.Latin America’s third-largest economy is booming, but Fernandez faces major challenges. She will have to tame high inflation without hurting growth and find a way to repay debt without draining central bank reserves.The Peronist leader urged Congress yesterday to pass her bill to limit foreign land ownership. And she said her government will continue to take economic steps to stave off fallout from a global economic crisis.She told reporters her government has adopted a mix of orthodox and unorthodox measures to overcome obstacles in the past, adding many of these steps “were not understood.”“When we have a clearer view of the global scenario ... we will take whatever measures are needed (to protect Argentina) as we’ve always done,” she added.An economic boom for much of the last eight years has boosted Fernandez’s popularity at the expense of the opposition - despite an inflation rate that is estimated privately at about 25%.In the primary election, centrist congressman Ricardo Alfonsin and former President Eduardo Duhalde, a dissident Peronist, both won 12.2% of votes. Hermes Binner, the socialist governor of Santa Fe province, garnered 10.3%, official data showed.