Sunday, the 28th ... Elections

Sunday passed by really quickly once I woke up. I spent a while trying to figure out the internet connection, as my borrowed internet is now password protected so I have to use a cord connected to Maria Laura’s compu. Then went to mass, then returned to pizza and watching the results from the Argentina elections.

Some interesting facts about the Argentina elections:

Argentina moved up these parliamentary elections, which were supposed to be in November. Kirchner, the current female president, has lost a lot of merit with the people, and this was an attempt to regain some faith in her administration. Her husband, the ex-President Kirchner, who pulled the country out of the horrible recession in 2001, was running for the spot through the BA district. His running mates were supposedly people who were more poster candidates than real politicians. The idea was to see how much support they had and see if running for the Presidency again in 2011 would be possible. Pues, they lost, badly. Voting is mandatory here too, btw, but lots of people didn’t go to the booths b/c of health concerns. Kirchner accepted defeat eloquently, and now there are rumors that current Kirchner might even resign early from the Presidency since people are obviously not happy with her.

From my host mom’s perspective, the current health crisis with swine flu was politically motivated as to the date it was announced because it occurred right after the elections. They’ve would’ve had to postpone the elections if it had happened before. And the Health Minister here resigned on Monday, the 29th, and odds are its because she wanted the health crisis to be declared before the elections.

So there’s some Argentine political info for ya.