Cristina is back!

I'm not sure if it made the Australian news, but the president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been returned for another 4 years after a resounding victory on Sunday. She won overall with around 53% of the vote, and the next candidate had only 17%. So of course there is no need for a run-off election.

To me it seems a surprising result. Just 2 years ago in the mid-term elections her party lost control of the congress. They really seemed to be on the nose. And yet they have bounced back enormously. Perhaps for many there wasn't really a credible opposition. The sympathy that came after the death of her husband no doubt had some role to play- who knows how much?

It was a resounding victory. She even won here in Cordoba with 35% of the vote, a province that has been fairly anti-Kirchner. In the 2007 presidential elections, in Cordoba she received less than 10% of the vote! She won in every province this time except San Luis. In one of the provinces her vote was as high as 82%!!!