Larreta’s environment crossed Macri, after he questioned the unfolding of the elections that he proposed in the City: “It does not change the rules”
By iProfessional
09/04/2023 – 21,31hs
Worried about the Threat of an advance by Javier Milei in the Buenos Aires Legislature and a drag of voters towards other presidential formulas, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta evaluates a mixed (concurrent) system for the City of Buenos Aires, where national candidacies are settled with traditional sheet ballot and local applicants in Single Paper Ballot .
The idea – which will finish defining this Monday, when the Buenos Aires head of government returns from a family break at Easter – is gaining more and more strength, despite criticism from Mauricio Macri, Patricia Bullrich and Jorge Macri.
Larreta’s proposal is to split the Buenos Aires elections from the national ones, but carry them out on the same day: two types of envelopes and two ballot boxes, share the provisional count and differentiate the final count. Only in the final CABA scrutiny do the tables of nationals and foreigners come together in city offices. The argument is that “it promotes an election where people choose for City issues and not for national issues, as is the case with the current sheet list system.”
“It is more state spending, more voting time, more lines, two ballot boxes, two ballots,” said the former president. But from the environment of Rodríguez Larreta they point to the double message of Macri, who promoted the single ballot in 2015, but who in 2019 returned to the system “attached to the national election, to reinforce his possible re-election.”
Unfolding, the City’s strategy
Willing not to be conditioned by the Buenos Aires electoral contest, Rodríguez Larreta evaluates Apply changes this year, similar to those carried out by Mauricio Macri throughout his efforts in the City of Buenos Aires and when he was president.
“In 2015, as head of Government, he established that the voting method was the Single Electronic Ballot and that was the election with the well-remembered Ballotage between Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Martín Louestau. In 2018, this voting format was formalized, voting in the Legislature the electoral code of the City and, in 2019, despite the fact that the electoral code of the City establishes the Single Ballot, at the request of Mauricio Macri to reinforce his possible re-election, he returned to the national system attached to the national election”, they retorted from the larretista environment.
Rodriguez Larreta’s decision adds even more tension to the internal PRO in the City
They also recalled that “in 2011, during Macri’s re-election in the City, he made the decision to split the national elections so that City and non-national issues are discussed in the election.”
One of the main questions of the former president is that the electoral rules are changed the same year of the vote. “The rules of the game are not modified; it is the electoral code of the City that establishes the different voting alternatives. The head of Government has the power to choose one of them,” they responded close to the mayor of Buenos Aires.
The internal of the PRO heats up
Beyond the chicanes on either side, the truth is that the decision that Rodríguez Larreta is about to make add more tension in the internal of the PRO in the City of Buenos Aires, which tries to unify behind a single candidate. Jorge Macri is, for the moment, who is positioned to keep that place.
“Those who, like Mauricio Macri, promote unified voting to the national, do not realize that the sheet ballot (hooked to the national) can cause them to lose the majority in the Legislature, since Milei would drag the list of legislators already their candidate for head of government and, then, make the city ungovernable that they believe they have deeded,” they said close to Rodríguez Larreta.
However, from the hard wing of the PRO they believe that it is an agreement between Larreta and the radical candidate, to harm the Macrista candidate. “Contrary to the argument that they want to benefit Lousteau that they are trying to install, what they are looking for is to take care of the PRO vote,” they say.
In addition to the electoral strategy, the Buenos Aires head of government seeks to be firm in his decisions and demonstrate that he can and does use the power he has to define how the elections will be in his territory, using the tools provided by the Code Electoral.
“The Single Ballot substantially strengthens the autonomy of the CABA and electoral transparency by making patronage practices difficult; facilitates control by political groups; decreases electoral spending by reducing the costs of printing ballots and their consequent impact environment, ultimately improving the quality of the elections and the electoral integrity”, assures the lerretismo.
