By what margin did Carlos Saúl Menem Akil win the presidential election?
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Although Menem, who was president from 1989 to 1999, won the first round of the election on April 27, 2003, he only got 24% of the valid votes — just 2% ahead of Kirchner. This was an empty victory, as Menem was viewed very negatively by much of the Argentine population and had virtually no chance of winning the runoff election. After days of speculation, during which polls forecast a massive victory for Kirchner with about a 30%–40% difference, Menem finally decided to stand down. This automatically made Kirchner president of Argentina, despite having secured only 22% of the votes in the election, the lowest percentage gained by the eventual winner of an Argentine presidential election. He was sworn in on May 25, 2003 to a four-year term of office.
Presidency of Néstor Kirchner
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Carlos Saúl Menem Akil (born July 2, 1930) is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from July 8, 1989 to December 10, 1999. He has been a Senator for La Rioja Province since December 10, 2005.
Carlos Menem
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Menem ran in 2003 and won the greatest number of votes, 24%, in the first round of the April 27, 2003 presidential election; but votes were split among numerous parties. Under the 1994 amendment, a presidential candidate can win outright by winning 45% of the vote, or 40% if the margin of victory is 10 or more percentage points. This set the stage for Argentina's first-ever ballotage between Menem and second-place finisher, and fellow Peronist, Néstor Kirchner, who had received 22%, was scheduled for May 18. However, by that time, Menem had become very unpopular. Polls predicted that he faced almost certain defeat by Kirchner in the runoff. Most polls showed Kirchner taking at least 60 percent of the vote, and at least one poll showed Menem losing by as many as 50 points. To avoid a humiliating defeat, Menem withdrew his candidacy on May 14, effectively handing the presidency to Kirchner.
Carlos Menem
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Carlos Saúl Menem was born in 1930 in Anillaco, a small town in the mountainous north of La Rioja Province, Argentina. His parents, Saúl Menem and Mohibe Akil, were Syrian nationals from Yabroud who had emigrated to Argentina. He attended elementary and high school in La Rioja, and joined a basketball team during his university studies. He visited Buenos Aires in 1951 with the team, and met the president Juan Perón and his wife Eva Perón. This influenced Menem to become a Peronist. He studied law at the National University of Córdoba, graduating in 1955.
Carlos Menem
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Raúl Alfonsín was the president of Argentina for the Radical Civic Union (UCR) from 1983 to 1989, and resigned during an economic crisis. Carlos Menem, from the Justicialist Party (PJ), was elected in 1989. The Convertibility plan ended the economic crisis and increased his popularity, allowing the PJ to win the 1991 and 1993 midterm elections. The presidential term of office was of six years, with no reelection. Menem sought to change that with an amendment to the Constitution of Argentina. For this he would require a supermajority of two thirds of both houses of the Argentine Congress. Although that was a feasible option at the Senate, it was a remote possibility at the Chamber of Deputies. Menem sought creative alternatives for that, such as a legal technicality that the requirement would be two thirds of the legislators present at the Congress during the session instead of two thirds of the complete body (and thus exploit circumstances where opposing legislators may be absent). Radical governors such as Carlos Maestro and Horacio Massaccesi commented that they would not oppose an amendment approved that way.
Pact of Olivos
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The elections were held on May 14, 1989. Menem won by a wide margin, and became the new president. He was scheduled to take office on December 10, but inflation levels took a turn for the worse, growing into hyperinflation, causing public riots. The outgoing president Alfonsín resigned and transferred power to Menem five months early, on July 8. Menem's accession marked the first time since Hipólito Yrigoyen took office in 1916 that an incumbent president peacefully transferred power to an elected successor from the opposition.
Carlos Menem
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Military rule ended in 1983, and the radical Raúl Alfonsín was elected president. Menem ran for governor again, and was elected by a clear margin. The province benefited from tax regulations established by the military, which allowed increased industrial growth. His party got control of the provincial legislature, and he was re-elected in 1987 with 63% of the vote. The PJ was divided in two factions, the conservatives that still supported the political doctrines of Juan and Isabel Perón, and those who proposed a renovation of the party. The internal disputes ceased in 1987. Menem, with his prominent victory in his district, was one of the leading figures of the party, and disputed its leadership.
Carlos Menem
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Ángel Maza, the elected governor of La Rioja, was allied with Menem, and had campaigned for him. However, weak provincial finances forced Maza to switch his support to Kirchner, which weakened Menem's influence even further. In June 2004 Menem announced that he had founded a new faction within the PJ, called "People's Peronism". He announced his intention to run in the 2007 election. In 2005, the press reported that he was trying to form an alliance with his former minister of economy Cavallo to fight in the parliamentary elections. Menem said that there had been only preliminary conversations and an alliance did not result. In the October 23, 2005 elections, Menem won the minority seat in the Senate representing his province of birth. The two seats allocated to the majority were won by President Kirchner's faction, locally led by Ángel Maza.
Carlos Menem
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Timerman was an early critic of Carlos Saúl Menem of the Justicialist Party, who became a presidential candidate after serving as governor of La Rioja Province. In 1988, during the presidential campaign, Timerman criticized Menem's plan to establish a free port at Isla Martin Garcia, saying it would encourage drug trafficking and money laundering. Menem filed a libel suit against the journalist that year. Timerman was acquitted in the trial, as well as in an appeals trial. Timerman opposed Menem during his election campaign in 1988.
Jacobo Timerman
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Carlos Menem, an exponent of the growing pro-market wing within the formerly Peronist PJ, won the election of 1989. UCeDé concluded an alliance with the Justicialist-led administration which had only a narrow majority in the Chamber of Deputies and gave important support to its policies of privatization and liberal economic reforms. Alsogaray, who had been an opponent of traditional Peronism, became the administration's chief policy advisor and his daughter María Julia secretary of natural resources and the main responsible for the privatization of the public telecommunications company ENTel. In the subsequent presidential election, the UCeDé endorsed Carlos Menem.
Union of the Democratic Centre (Argentina)