The final numbers showed that president-elect Macri and his running-mate Gabriela Michetti received 51.34 percent of the vote, while Scioli and running-mate Carlos Zannini secured 48.66 percent.

Victory Front candidate makes slight gain

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Final vote count puts PRO chief 678,744 votes ahead of Scioli

While it became clear within hours after the closing of the polls after the November 22 presidential runoff that Mauricio Macri of Let’s Change (Cambiemos) had come out on top of the ruling Victory Front (FpV) candidate Daniel Scioli, the exact margins of the vote were not defined until yesterday afternoon when National Electoral Director Alejandro Tullio announced the definitive vote count.

The final numbers showed that president-elect Macri and his running-mate Gabriela Michetti received 51.34 percent of the vote, while Scioli and running-mate Carlos Zannini secured 48.66 percent.

Nationwide, this meant Macri and Let’s Change won 12,988,349 votes at the runoff, while Scioli-Zannini and the FpV won 12,309,575. Consequently, a total of 678,744 votes separated the candidates with all votes now counted. There were 306,651 blank votes.

The definitive figures represented a slight increase for Scioli from the preliminary numbers released shortly after the vote, which put Macri on 51.45 percent of votes and the outgoing governor of Buenos Aires province on 48.55 percent.

This reflected the continuation of a trend seen on election night where Scioli’s percentage of the vote increased as more polling stations declared.

While initial figures and exit polls on November 22 had pointed to a Macri win by a significant margin of between four and eight points, as votes from across the country began to be tallied it became clear Scioli would pull himself far closer — though not close enough — than was previously expected by many pollsters.

The definitive results showed the completion of this levelling of the vote, which occurred throughout the night as results from Argentina’s furthest flung regions within the interior began to arrive, broadly favouring the Kirchnerite candidate.

In the end, a difference of just 2.68 percent of votes separated the two candidates, large enough nevertheless for Macri, the outgoing mayor of Buenos Aires City, to secure the presidency and end 12 consecutive years of government by the ruling party.

Herald staff