By Pablo Krause
Herald staff
The main candidates for Senator in Córdoba province yesterday acknowledged the victory of former Córdoba city Mayor Luis Juez, head of the Civic Front, ahead of former ombudsman Eduardo Mondino of the ruling Unión por Córdoba front and Radical candidate Ramón Mestre. However, the race was neck to neck in the voting for Lower House, with the Radical party leading by less than one percent.
With 95 percent of the votes counted, Juez was in first place with 30.65 percent, while Mestre and Mondino were battling for second place with the Radical candidate leading 26.70 percent to 26.01 percent.
The margin was not wider in the race for the Lower House, with Radical candidate Oscar Aguad leading with 29.07 percent of the votes and Gumersindo Alonso from the Civic Front trailing with 27.98 percent, while Unión por Córdoba’s Francisco Fortuna was third with 25.59.
The result also showed a strong rejection of the national government, in a province searingly marked by the conflict between the government and the farm sector over the export duties bill, as Victory Front candidate for Senate Eduardo Acastello came in fourth with 8.77%, as did Lower House candidate Carmen Nebreda with 9,11 percent of the votes.
Juez’s victory came as revenge for the former Córdoba mayor and Social and Civic Accord leader Elisa Carrio’s candidate in the province, following a close defeat by Governor Juan Schiaretti in the 2007 elections, which was marked by fraud accusations from the Civic Front candidate.
“We have defeated a gang of crooks,” said Juez, based on exit polls from his activists, before the official figures were made public. Later yesterday, the former Córdoba mayor praised the work of his scrutineers.
“We defeated a huge party machine less than 23 months after they stole an election from us ,” said Juez, who urged the scrutineers to stay at the voting centres until the result was officialized.
“This time we took all the precautions we did not take last time, they could not steal this election from us because we stayed until the very last minute,” he added. “We are going to win by five or six points.”
Asked about the situation of the Peronist party in Córdoba province, Juez compared it to the Titanic.
“They (the Peronist) are all inside a cabin and the name of the ship is Titanic, I would be very worried if I was aboard that ship,” said Juez.
“The Peronist party was severely punished, the people answered with their vote,” he added.
According to the official figures, Juez and his running-mate Norma Morandini will be elected Senators for Córdoba, the country’s third larger district representing 8.7 percent of the electoral register, while Mestre was poised to be elected as the Senator for the largest minority in the province.
The result is a huge blow for the ruling party, which loses the seats of pro-government Deputies Roberto Urquía and Haidé Giri, while the Civic Front gains one senator as Carlos Rossi ends his term in office.
In the Lower House race, the Radical Party will pick up three Deputies, including Aguad’s reelection, as well as the Civic Front. Unión por Córdoba winning two and the Victory Front only garners one deputy.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Radical party and the Civic Front had denounced missing and false ballots at the voting centres.
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