Argentines seeking elixir for economic ills

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 22 (AFP): Argentines began voting Sunday in a presidential election dominated by fury over decades of economic decline and record inflation that has propelled political outsider Javier Milei to the front of a tight race.
Once one of the richest countries in the world, Argentina has stagnated in recent decades, unable to escape cycles of fiscal crises marked by debt, financial mismanagement, and inflation that now stands at 140 percent year-on-year.
With 40 percent of the population living in poverty and a middle class brought to its knees, many voters are keen to see the back of the traditional parties they see as the architects of their misery.
"We need a change. The country is a disaster, really, between the poverty, inflation, people are in a bad situation," said Gabriela Paperini, 57, an election volunteer waiting for voters to arrive in the suburb of Palermo.
She said she was planning to vote for former security minister Patricia Bullrich, but her daughter was backing Milei, who "I think is going to get a lot of votes."
Like many, she said she felt "so much" uncertainty over the outcome of the vote.
To avoid a runoff election on November 19, a candidate needs to win 45 percent of the vote Sunday, or 40 percent with a difference of 10 points or more over the nearest rival.
Milei, a libertarian economist who formed his party Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances) only in 2021, blindsided most experts and pollsters when he surged to the front of the election race, winning a primary with 30 percent of votes.
The self-described "anarcho-capitalist" with disheveled hair and a rock-star persona has lured voters with his diatribes on television and social media -- where he vows to "dynamite" the central bank and ditch the peso for the US dollar.
He has run his campaign on TikTok and YouTube and showed up at live rallies with a powered-up chainsaw, vowing to slash public spending by 15 percent.
Political science student Agustin Baletti, 22, said he will be voting for Milei because past governments have "left young people without hope."
"Everything is already broken. Milei isn't going to break anything."
While Milei has topped opinion polls, these have not proved reliable in the past, and analysts say anything can happen between the three frontrunners out of five total candidates.
Charismatic Economy Minister Sergio Massa represents the ruling center-left Peronist coalition, a populist movement heavy on state intervention and welfare programs that has dominated Argentine politics for decades but has grown deeply unpopular.