Voting Models in Argentina: 2007 Presidential Elections

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the presidential elections held on Argentina in October 2007. After the serious institutional crisis experienced in 2001, Nestor Kirchner’s victory in 2003 presidential election heralded a serious deficit of political legitimacy to the presidency due to the fact that he was the second most voted candidate with just a 22.24 percent of votes. In spite of that, Kirchner consolidated the “Frente para la Victoria” electoral support achieving in 2007 the reelection for the incumbent party. Which factors could explain this electoral result? This paper attempts to evaluate the strength of traditional models of voting to explain 2007 electoral result and it also tests the hypotheses proposed recently to explain the electoral behavior of Argentineans. The data was collected through the Comparative National Election Project (CNEP).