ARGENTINA: Ruling Coalition Wins Election, Expands Presence In Congress

(RTTNews) - The ruling coalition Cambiemos won the legislative elections held Sunday in Argentina, with 40 percent of support nationwide, defeating Unidad Ciudadana, from former president Cristina Kirchner, which consolidated its image as the main opposition bloc.

Cambiemos won in the five larger electoral districts of Argentina and expanded its presence in the Argentinean Congress.

In the Buenos Aires province, where the race was particularly tight due to a technical tie in the primaries, both Esteban Bullrich from Cambiemos, and Kirchner were elected.

However, Bullrich amassed 42.18% of the votes, while the former Argentinean president reached 36.25% in the dispute. Likewise, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the ruling coalition managed to impose itself by getting 50.93% of the votes, compared to 21.74% for the opposition.

The results were in line with market expectations, even after recent doubts emerged when the appearance of a body floating in the Chubut river was seen as a threat to the government performance in the polls.

The body was found in the same region where searches for the 28-year old backpacker Santiago Maldonado were being conducted.

Maldonado is missing since August 1 and disappeared shortly after surrendering and being arrested by the Gendarmerie during the border guards repression to a Mapuche demonstration over the claim of Indian ancestral lands in the province of Chubut, in Southern Argentina.

The body found in the Chubut river this week was not identified yet but was enough to trigger social and political turmoil amid the electoral campaign and led opinion polls to raise the possibility of a technical tie in the dispute between Bullrich and Kirchner.