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Luis Manzur’s victory was confirmed by the Electoral Board (photo: Wikipedia)
Almost three weeks after the disputed Tucumán elections, the results of the final recount were delivered last night by the Provincial Electoral Board, confirming the victory of Frente para la Victoria (FPV) candidate Juan Manzur.
Former health minister Manzur won the contest by a margin of almost 12% , or 111,533 votes, over his Acuerdo para el Bicentenario (APB) rival, José Cano.
Electoral officials, however, will be unable to proclaim Manzur the winner until the Tucumán Administrative Appeals Court resolves accusations of fraud levied by the opposition, as per a decision by the court announced on 8th September. Cano and the APB had asked that the electoral court nullify the 23rd August result and call Tucumán residents back to the polls for a new election, a request that was denied.
Cano responded to the recount, which gave him 39.94% (380,418) of the vote against the Kirchnerist candidate’s 51.64% (491,951), saying that he would not recognise the result until the Tucumán Court presents a verdict on the APB’s claims. He told Radio America, “The result today is invalidated by justice, to such a point that the Electoral Court cannot proclaim anybody [as winner]”.
He said, “The legitimacy of this election has been marred by incidents and outrageous events that took place on election day”, referring to the opposition’s accusations of violence and the corruption of ballot boxes. The electoral authorities counted 916,507 positive votes for candidates, 25,113 blank votes, and 10,957 null ballots.
Manzur declared himself the winner at a rally of thousands of supporters in Plaza 9 de Julio, telling them, “We are here to celebrate because things turned out as we knew they would: Justicialism” – a Peronist party under the FPV umbrella – “won these elections by more than 100,000 votes”. He celebrated the confirmation of the initial result – in which he was given a 14-point lead – adding that “they wanted to hurt us, but the people of Tucumán won’t allow it.”
Although the APB candidate achieved a 16% lead in the provincial capital area, home to almost 40% of the electorate, Manzur performed well in the Tucumán interior, with a 40% and 19% advantage in the east and west respectively.
The post Tucumán: Electoral Board Ratifies FPV Victory appeared first on The Argentina Independent.
