Argentines finished voting Sunday in a runoff presidential election with an uncertain outcome, choosing between a traditional Peronist party’s economy minister who has failed to tame runaway inflation and an ultra-liberal promising explosive reforms.

At the height of the financial crisis, the dispute between ruling party Sergio Massa, a moderate advocate of the welfare state, and economist Javier Miley, who proposes eliminating the central bank and dollarizing the economy, has sparked heated debate among Argentines.

Voting will close at 6:00 pm (3:00 pm Mexican time) and the first verification results are expected at 9:00 pm (6:00 pm Mexican time).

Despite the public’s apathy, the contrast between the two proposals prompted many to vote for what some analysts have called the “lesser evil,” which implies passionate opposition to a candidate they don’t want rather than outright support for one they don’t want. choose. .

Whoever wins, experts are predicting profound changes in domestic politics: Peronism could shift from center-left to center under Massa, and the opposition – until this year hegemonized by the conservative United for Change alliance – splitting with a libertarian candidate. .

“This will be an election that will create a deep rupture in the system of political representation in Argentina. I think all the powers as we knew them have been transformed,” analyst Julio Burdman, director of the Electoral Observatory consultancy, told Reuters.

After years of difficulties, many Argentines’ disillusionment with the traditional parties has given rise to the rise of a political newcomer who, according to recent polls, has as good a chance as Massa, a 51-year-old lawyer, of winning the presidency.

“This is an extremely important election that will determine which country we will navigate in the next four years,” Massa told reporters after voting in Buenos Aires province.

Miley’s disruptive proposals on the economic level, as well as his aggressive style and controversial statements, have given a major opportunity to the candidate of the centre-left ruling party, a centrist politician who came into the economics portfolio last year at the height of a crisis that has not been reversed.

“I am going to vote for Massa because Miley is not an option for me and because I defend democracy. A candidate who couldn’t answer “yes, definitely yes” when asked three times if he believed in the democratic system is scary,” Cynthia Farber, a 50-year-old translator, said of the libertarian.

Miley, who carried a chainsaw at his events to symbolize his proposed cuts in government spending, said he would privatize state-owned companies and reform health and education systems.

“We did our best. Now let the polls speak (…) Let’s hope that tomorrow there will be more hope and not so much continuous decline,” said Miley after voting in the city of Buenos Aires.

The 53-year-old right-wing candidate has questioned the causes of climate change, criticized legal abortion and attacked Pope Francis, who is Argentine.

His followers believe that he is the only one capable of overthrowing “caste,” as Miley calls classical politicians, and ending the desperate annual inflation of 143% and poverty of 40%.

“I have heard a lot about politics at home because of everything that has happened in these 40 years of democracy, and that is why I believe that we deserve real change (…) our generation is promoting the presidency of (Javier) Miley to remove the country from ostracism,” said Agustina Lista, a 22-year-old student.

The incoming president will also have to deal with empty central bank coffers and a $44 billion debt deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2018.

Although in the first round of elections in October the current minister received 36.7% of the vote for the Union for the Motherland coalition, compared to 30% for the leader of the La Liberty Avanza party, Miley’s subsequent support from the most conservative sector of the party, the Force, came in third place in these elections (“Together for Change”), supported the fight.

The destruction caused by Mila led the center-left presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Spain to publicly support Massa, while Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and former right-wing leaders of Chile and Colombia supported the libertarian.