Official candidate for the presidency Argentina Sergio Massa and ultra-liberal Javier Miley will determine the outcome of the elections in the second round on November 19.

The votes were counted this Sunday evening.

With 88.68 percent counted, Massa, the current economy minister, received 36.28 percent of the vote, followed by Libertarian Miley with 30.19 percent and Conservative candidate Patricia Bullrich with 23.82 percent.

The ruling Massa party’s victory was a surprise after Miley’s victory in August primaries made him the favorite in Sunday’s election thanks to his proposals to dollarize the economy and eliminate the central bank at the height of rampant inflation.

As a result, former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich dropped out of the second round of elections amid general apathy among the population, suffering from a decades-long economic crisis that promoted the candidacy of the libertarian “outsider” Miley.

Massa, who took over the economics portfolio last year at the height of a financial storm that he has been unable to calm, has proposed reducing the budget deficit to protect the peso while trying to defend the interventionist model of his center-left coalition Unión por. la Patria.

“For me, Sergio Massa with Unión por la Patria represents certain traditional guarantees that I grew up with: public health, public school, and these are what I want to defend with my voice,” said astrologer Flavia Vázquez.

The incoming president will have to deal with an economy in critical condition: inflation has reached 138% per year, poverty has reached 40%, and the central bank coffers are empty. It will also have to deal with a $44 billion debt deal reached in 2018 with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In this desperate situation, the main support of the La Libertad Avanza party, founded by Miley, an eccentric economist who worked as a TV commentator, is young people.

“The dream of something better comes from Milea, in the midst of so much disappointment that politics creates in us every day,” said Dolores Morosi, 24, a student from Buenos Aires province.

In the midst of a protracted crisis, Milea’s initiative to dollarize the economy has increased financial instability in the country in recent weeks, which could again affect the domestic peso after the elections.

To avoid a runoff, the winner of the election would have to have more than 45% of the vote, or 40% and a difference of at least 10 percentage points from the second – percentages that no candidate seems likely to achieve. (Reuters).