Argentina's Cristina Fernandez to keep changing history

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has won a landslide election victory. 

With votes counted from 75% of polling stations, Ms Fernandez has won 53% of vote, enough to secure re-election in the first round.
Her closest challenger - the socialist Hermes Binner - had just 17%.


In a victory speech, Ms Fernandez said she wanted to keep changing history, as thousands chanted and waved flags in Buenos Aires' Plaza de Mayo.

"Count on me to continue pursuing the project," she said, watched by supporters on a huge TV screen. "All I want is to keep collaborating ... to keep Argentina growing."

If confirmed, the victory margin would be the biggest since Argentina returned to democracy in 1983.
Votes in Ms Fernandez's stronghold of Buenos Aires province are still to be counted.

Ms Fernandez, 58, has presided over strong economic growth and introduced popular social policies.
The sudden death of her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, a year ago brought her a wave of public sympathy.

Her critics say she has also benefited from a weak and fragmented opposition in this election.
"This is a strange night for me," Ms Fernandez told her jubilant supporters. "This man who transformed Argentina led us all and gave everything he had and more ... Without him, without his valour and courage, it would have been impossible to get to this point."

Ms Fernandez may also regain control of Congress, which she lost in mid-term elections in 2009.
Nearly 30 million voters were choosing who will fill 130 seats in the lower house of congress, 24 senate seats and nine governor's offices as well as hundreds of local seats.

Following her election in 2007, her public support quickly plummeted to around 20% after rows with farmers and media groups over of the introduction of exports quotas.

It was often suggested, during her early years in office, that it was her husband who was really running the country. Nestor Kirchner was president from 2003 to 2007 and stood aside to let his wife run for office to succeed him.He was widely expected to run again for the presidency in 2011 until his sudden death from a heart attack last October.

Political analysts say Ms Fernandez's current popularity is mostly due to the health of the economy, which has boomed thanks to high prices for exports such as soya.

She has also carried out social programmes - such as benefits for three million of the country's poorest children - which have proved extremely popular. But her critics accuse her of pursuing populist policies, and question whether such programmes can be sustained.

She has also been accused of downplaying the scale of inflation, which is now the second highest in Latin America, behind Venezuela.


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