(25 Oct 1999) Spanish/Nat

Already posters have appeared lobbying for the return of Argentina's Carlos Menem to power in the year 2003 following his party's defeat in Sunday's elections.

The veteran leader's chosen successor lost to Argentina's opposition figurehead Fernando De la Rua whose landslide victory ended Menem's historic ten years in office.

De la Rua, currently the mayor of Buenos Aires, will take power on 10 December and has four years to serve as president before Menem can attempt a comeback.

Supporters of President Carlos Menem wasted no time on Monday in publicising their former leader's intent to avenge party defeat in Sunday's elections.

"Menem 2003" posters bearing the slogan "The country needs him" appeared across the capital Buenos Aires, heralding the Peronist's expected bid for office in the next millennium.

For the time being, the man who first took power in 1989, must step aside for Buenos Aires mayor Fernando de la Rua.

De la Rua, who won a landslide victory over the ruling party's chosen candidate, is expected to take office on 10 December.

Argentina's 24 million-strong electorate have dealt Menem and his Peronist party a fierce blow.

But Peronists are still likely to win and control at least 14 of Argentina's 23 provincial governorships, including the powerful Buenos Aires seat won by Carlos Ruckauf.

Ruckauf defeated the Alliance's Graciela Fernandez Meijide when, at first, it seemed Meijide would win.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Graciela (Fernández Meijide) is an extraordinary national figure in the building of the alliance and, of course, we went from euphoria to dumbfounded surprise when the computers transformed her clear victory into an adverse result."
SUPER CAPTION: Fernando de la Rua, Argentina's president elect

Sunday's vote was as much a referendum on the two-term Menem presidency as it was a defeat for Eduardo Duhalde, the Peronist governor of Buenos Aires province.

Initial reactions in the street following Sunday's vote suggested many voters had grown tired of Menem.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"That he goes and may he never come back."
SUPER CAPTION: VOXPOP

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"You want the truth. I hope he never returns. I hope he goes back to where he's from - the Arab world."
SUPER CAPTION: VOXPOP

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"I think that this sort of man should never return."
SUPER CAPTION: VOXPOP

Menem had flirted with running in the latest campaign, but was barred by a constitutional ban on presidents serving three terms consecutively.

For the next four years De la Rua has the chance to prove that he can do a better job than his predecessor.

But Argentineans, still in the grip of deep economic recession, will want to see results and if little improves some analysts are saying Menem might well still get the chance to return.

Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ] ​​
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]


You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]

свернуть