Argentina: Macri set for presidential run-off as Scioli fails to win first round outright

ARGENTINA will vote in a run-off election next month after left-wing presidential candidate Daniel Scioli failed to win by a sufficient margin yesterday, writes James Tweedie.

With the last results coming in, the Front for Victory (FPV) candidate led his Let’s Change party rival Mauricio Macri by 36.9 per cent to 34.3 per cent.

United for a New Alternative candidate Sergio Massa came third with 21.3 per cent.

In the 12 years of rule by FPV presidents Cristina Fernandez and her late husband Nestor Kirchner 500,000 jobs were created each year and unemployment was reduced from 26 per cent to below 7 per cent.

Some 50,000 small and medium-sized enterprises were set up and the poverty rate fell from 54 per cent in 2003 to 6.5 per cent in 2012.

Education and pensions spending almost doubled in the same period, while the national debt was slashed by three-quarters.

GUATEMALA: Right-wing radio journalist Jimmy Morales won Sunday’s run-off presidential election with more than two-thirds of the vote yesterday, beating former first lady Sandra Torres.

Mr Morales called the result a vote against corruption after former president Otto Perez Molina was arrested for graft, but his National Convergence Front party has links to death squads.

COLOMBIA: Independent candidate Enrique Penalosa was elected mayor of the capital Bogota on Sunday, beating centre-left Progressive Movement incumbent Gustavo Petro.

As Green Party mayor from 1998 to 2001, Mr Penalosa restricted rush-hour traffic and built cycle lanes. But he also supported former president Alvaro Uribe’s Convivir death-squad programme.