Turnout: 80.41%
About this election
The 2019 Argentine presidential election returned Peronism to power after a single term of Mauricio Macri. The Peronist ticket of Alberto Fernández for president and the former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for vice-president — running under the Frente de Todos (Everyone's Front) banner — won outright in the first round, avoiding the run-off that had decided 2015 and ending Macri's hopes of re-election amid a deep economic crisis.
The president is elected by the Argentine two-round rule: outright victory requires more than 45% of the valid vote, or more than 40% with a ten-point lead over the runner-up. The compulsory PASO primaries in August 2019 had already delivered a shock — Fernández beat Macri by some sixteen points — triggering a run on the peso and signalling the likely result months in advance. Voting is compulsory.
The campaign was dominated by the economy: inflation running above 50%, a collapsing peso and the austerity attached to Macri's 2018 IMF programme. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, still a polarising figure, took the unexpected step of running for vice-president and handing the top of the ticket to the more moderate Alberto Fernández, broadening the Peronist appeal. Macri, running with the Peronist senator Miguel Ángel Pichetto, sought to rally anti-Kirchnerist voters under the renamed Juntos por el Cambio.
On 27 October, Alberto Fernández won 48.24% to Macri's 40.28% — comfortably clearing the threshold for a first-round victory. Roberto Lavagna, a centrist former economy minister, took 6.15%, with Nicolás del Caño (2.16%) and the conservative Juan José Gómez Centurión (1.71%) trailing. The eight-point margin was narrower than the PASO had suggested, as Macri recovered somewhat, but it was decisive. Turnout was 80.41%.
Fernández took office in December 2019, but his government was almost immediately overtaken by the COVID-19 pandemic, which deepened Argentina's recession. Tensions between the president and his powerful vice-president, and the unrelenting economic crisis, would erode the coalition over the following years, contributing to its midterm defeat in 2021 and its loss of the presidency in 2023.
Fernández swept the Peronist heartland — Buenos Aires Province, the northern provinces and most of the interior — winning a clear majority of the country's 24 districts. Macri's support was concentrated in the City of Buenos Aires, Córdoba (his strongest province), Santa Fe, Mendoza, Entre Ríos and San Luis, the more prosperous and historically anti-Peronist districts, but it was not enough to force a run-off.
Official results from Argentina's Cámara Nacional Electoral / Dirección Nacional Electoral (resultados.gob.ar). Vote shares are of valid votes; the map is coloured by the leading ticket in each province, with the full breakdown on click.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.