Early Argentine mid-term elections?

Posted on March 25th, 2009 Jack No comments  Print This Post

Via Vittorio at The Olive and the Arrow, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has asked her country’s congress to move up presidential elections by four months.

Someone in the comments notes the Senate has approved. Kirchner has until Saturday to secure the consent of the lower house. If the Chamber of Deputies goes along, the election will be on June 28, 2009, instead of October 28, 2009.

According to the NYT article Vittorio links, “she wanted to give Argentines less to worry about in the face of the worsening global financial crisis.” That makes sense for Kirchner’s allies in congress if she assumes – probably correctly – that economic conditions will be worse in October than June. Unfortunately her bid appears to have accelerated the decline of investor confidence.