Argentina has re-elected Cristina Kirchner as president in a landslide result that gave her the widest victory margin in Argentina's history after her government spread the wealth of a booming economy.
Kirchner had 53% of the vote after 58% of polling stations reported. Her nearest challenger got 17%. The interior minister, Florencio Randazzo, predicted the president's share would rise as polls came in from her party's stronghold of densely populated Buenos Aires province.
"Count on me to continue pursuing the project," Kirchner said in her victory speech. "All I want is to keep collaborating ... to keep Argentina growing. I want to keep changing history."
Kirchner is Latin America's first woman to be re-elected as president but the victory was personally bittersweet – the first without her husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner, who died of a heart attack on 27 October 2010.
"This is a strange night for me," she said, describing her mix of emotions. "This man who transformed Argentina led us all and gave everything he had and more ... Without him, without his valour and courage, it would have been impossible to get to this point."
Thousands of jubilant, flag-waving people crowded into the capital's historic Plaza de Mayo to watch on a huge TV screen as she spoke from a downtown hotel. » | Associated Press in Buenos Aires | Monday, October 24, 2011
