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10/14 18:35 Argentine Voters Likely Weakened President, Polls Say (Update3) By John Lyons Buenos Aires, Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Argentine voters probably weakened President Fernando de la Rua`s power in Congress in an election for the entire Senate and half the lower house, favoring candidates who demand a write-off on the nation`s $132 billion of debt, exit polls showed. Opposition Peronist party candidate Eduardo Duhalde probably won a Senate seat for the Buenos Aires province, according to exit polls reported by TodoNoticias television. Rodolfo Terragno, the Radical Party candidate who has called for Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo to resign, won a Senate seat in the capital city, exit polls showed. Preliminary results were expected tonight. De la Rua lost favor after spending cuts and tax increases failed restore confidence that the government will pay its debts and pull the economy out of recession. Moody`s Investors Service Friday cut Argentina`s credit rating, saying the government may be taking steps that will lead to a debt default. ``At this point things may be out of their control,`` Art Steinmetz, who manages $1 billion in emerging market debt for Oppenheimer Funds Inc. in New York, said before today`s vote. De la Rua`s Radical party and the coalition that brought him to power two years ago may have lost control of the lower house as voters were expected to punish the government for failing to end a three-year economic slump, opinion polls ahead of today`s vote showed. Spending Cuts Cavallo, who has run the $280 billion economy for six months, has called for $1.8 billion more in spending by yearend to avoid default. Such cuts may be harder to introduce after opposition parties, as well as Cavallo`s opponents from within the Radical party, gain power in today`s voting. Many politicians, labor leaders and businessmen say Argentina`s currency system, introduced by Cavallo when he served as economy minister 10 years ago, as a main cause of the recession. That system fixes the peso at par with the U.S. dollar and has made Argentine goods uncompetitive, forcing thousands of companies to close down. Cavallo has said he won`t devalue the peso. Voting may also underscore disillusionment with leaders of all political parties. Exits polls reported by TodoNoticias showed as much as 29 percent of Buenos Aires residents spoiled their ballots or left them blank. That`s more than any candidate received, according to the poll. In the capital city, 72 percent of people designated to work at polling stations sought court permission to avoid the duty, the daily La Nacion said. Obligatory Vote ``I`m here because I have to be here, not because I have any conviction,`` said Oscar Nano, who works for electricity distributor Edesur, after voting at a polling station in San Telmo, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires city. Argentina requires mandatory voting. Candidates calling for a debt write-off are likely to win key Senate races, polls showed. In the most populous province of Buenos Aires, Duhalde led Alfonsin with 43 percent versus 17 percent, according to TodoNoticias, which citied an exit poll by pollster Julio Aurelio. The poll has 1.5-percentage-point margin of error. Raul Alfonsin, a former president who has called for a grace period on principal and interest payments, will likely pick up a Senate seat by coming in second, according to the poll. The Radical party list led by Terragno, who has the endorsement of the president, led in the Buenos Aires city race with 22 percent, TodoNoticias said. The poll showed socialist candidate Alfredo Bravo with 19 percent. TodoNoticias didn`t release the poll`s margin of error. Terragno, who wants to negotiate a reduction in interest payments on debt, ran his campaign on promises to force Cavallo from office. Bravo also wants debt payments slashed and the economy minister fired. Mandate for Change ``The only thing I want is the mandate to provoke an economic change,`` Terragno said after voting today. In the lower house, where 127 of the 257 seats were up for election play, the opposition Peronist party is likely to gain at least 10 seats to become the most-represented party with 110 seats, according to separate studies. The president`s Alliance coalition, which until now has held most seats, is likely to lose as many as nine seats to drop into second place with 101. A breakaway party from the Alliance that is calling for Cavallo`s ouster will likely hold 18 seats after the vote. In the 72-seat Senate the opposition Peronist party may lose as many as four seats to hold a total 36, both studies show. The Alliance will gain three seats to keep 25, Fraga said. Rouvier said the Alliance may gain as many as seven seats. De la Rua may replace some cabinet members after the voting in an attempt to muster support from the reconfigured Congress, analysts said. Cavallo is likely to remain in office and announce new economic measures this week, analysts said. Cavallo to Continue ``Cavallo is not going to resign,`` said political analyst Rosendo Fraga, who has advised Cavallo. ``He may not remain economy minister until the end of the president`s term, but he`s not going anywhere in the post elections period.`` Cavallo`s announcements may include an accord for local banks and pension funds to swap bonds they own for new securities that pay less than half as much interest. International investors said they are concerned that Argentina will seek a similar swap with foreign holders. Argentine businessmen also believe the government will be forced to take measures to reduce the debt burden. ``There doesn`t seem to be any alternative to restructuring,`` said Carlos Leone, a director of steelmaker Acindar Industria Argentina de Aceros SA. |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Ausfall von Staatsanleihen |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | MrDiamond (15.10.01 01:17:48) |
| Beitrag: | 76 von 190 (ID:4635986) |
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