Argentina holds elections on Sunday, and among the most-watched battles is one between three women in the province of Buenos Aires : current Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (wife of current Pres. Nestor Kirchner), Hilda Gonzalez de Duhalde (wife of ex-Pres. Eduardo Duhalde), and Marta Maffei, an educator. Cristina and "Chiche" (as Hilda is called) are both Peronists, but the Duhaldes hold the right to use the official party name, the Justicialist Party, so the Kirchners have created their own group called the Victory Front. Maffei is part of the opposition ARI party. The leader of ARI, Elisa Carrio, is running for the lower house of Congress. As such, she has been the target of attacks by the administration, which is running one of its ministers, Rafael Bielsa, for the same position.
For some background on the role of women in Argentine politics, see my article in Women's E-News.
Update on the elections: Cristina Kirchner (first lady) won in a landslide, even though she didn't give a single interview during the campaign. Carrio's ARI party fared poorly, possibly as a result of the accusations made by the administration two days before the elections--which turned out to be completely unfounded.
Posted by: Sharene Azimi | October 30, 2005 at 07:24 PM