COUNTRY	Argentine Republic
ELECTION TYPE	Presidential
DATE	April 27, 2003

• The office of the President of the Argentine Republic.

• Chief of State & Head of Government: President Eduardo Alberto DUHALDE
• Assembly: Argentina has a bicameral parliament called the National Congress (Congreso Nacional). One chamber is the Senate (Senado de la Nación) with 72 seats and the other is the Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados de la Nación) with 257 seats.

• The president is elected by popular vote to serve a four year term.
• Elections to the Senate are held every two years to elect 1/3 of its members to serve a six-year term while one half of the members within the Chamber of Deputies are elected every two years to serve a four-year term.

• Presidential Candidate: Carlos Saul MENEM **
  Party: Front for Loyalty Alliance/Union of the Democratic Center Party
  Votes Cast: 4,677,213
  Percentage of Votes Cast: 24.34%
  
  
• Presidential Candidate: Nestor KIRCHNER **
  Party: Front for Victory Alliance
  Votes Cast: 4,227,141
  Percentage of Votes Cast: 21.99%
  
  
• Presidential Candidate: Ricardo López MURPHY
  Party: Federal Alliance Movement to Recreate Growth (Movimiento Recrear la Argentina)
  Votes Cast: 3,142,848
  Percentage of Votes Cast: 16.35%
  
  
• Presidential Candidate: Aldolfo Rodriguez SAA
  Party: Alliance for the Popular Movement Front/Union and Liberty Party
  Votes Cast: 2,714,760
  Percentage of Votes Cast: 14.12%
  
  
• Presidential Candidate: Elisa CARRIÓ
  Party: Affirmative Alliance for an Egalitarian Republic
  Votes Cast: 2,720,143
  Percentage of Votes Cast: 14.15%
  
  

**MENEM and KIRCHNER will advance to the second round of elections on May 18, 2003.

Note: Presidential primaries were not held within the PJ party. There is no official representative of the PJ.

• Last elections were held on October 24, 1999 with former President Fernando DE LA RUA winning 48.5% of the national vote over Eduardo DUHALDE who had 38.09% of the votes. However, DE LA RUA resigned on December 2001 and the National Congress selected DUHALDE as the new president.

• Population: 37,812,817 (July 2002 estimate)
• Number of registered voters: 24,735,483 (Based on the 2001 legislative elections)

• In order to avoid a run-off, the candidate must secure 45% of the vote or a 10% margin to win the presidency.
• The economic situation and increased crime rates are among the issues in the election.
• According to public opinion polls, there is concern that the voter turnout rate would be low due to the public’s rising mistrust of politicians and their inability to remedy the economic crisis.
• DUHALDE was selected for the office of president by the National Congress in January 2002 after the resignation of former president Adolfo Rodriguez SAÁ who was in office for one week.
• There are 13 candidates competing in the presidential race. However only 5 of the candidates are considered to be the serious contenders based on recent opinion polls.