Mid-term elections seen weakening Argentine leader

By Fiona Ortiz
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentines voted in congressional elections on Sunday and are expected to throw out allies of President Cristina Fernandez in a rejection of her interventionist economic policies and combative style.
Fernandez, a center-leftist who in 2007 succeeded her husband ex-President Nestor Kirchner, has stagnated with a 30 percent approval rating as Latin America`s No. 3 economy hits turbulence after a six-year expansion.
Polls show Fernandez`s wing of the ruling Peronist party will lose its majority in the 257-seat lower house and barely maintain control of the 72-seat Senate in the mid-term vote.
The key race is in Buenos Aires province, home to 38 percent of Argentines, where dueling Peronist factions are scrambling for the largest share of the 35 lower house seats up for grabs in that district alone.
Kirchner, widely seen as co-governing the country with his wife, is running for Congress in the populous province to shore up her administration and possibly position himself for a presidential run to extend their hold on power through 2015.
The mid-terms are viewed as a springboard for the 2011 presidential race, and Kirchner`s chances will fade if he comes in second in a tight race with millionaire Peronist dissident Francisco de Narvaez.
Argentines` biggest concerns are crime and inflation, according to opinion polls, and Fernandez`s failure to tame high prices is one reason her popularity has flagged.
"I voted for someone else because this government is a disaster. You know what the biggest problem is? Crime. I`ve got to be off the street behind locked doors by 6 p.m.," said Ernesto, a 67-year-old retiree who did not want to give his last name and who voted in an upper-middle-class neighborhood of the province.
COMBATIVE STYLE
The Kirchners` confrontational style -- including frequent clashes with business leaders -- over their six years in power has also worn thin on Argentines.
On the campaign trail, Kirchner warned the country will return to the chaos of the 2001-2002 economic and political meltdown if people do not back him and his wife.
Argentina`s powerful agricultural sector rebelled last year against Fernandez`s plans for higher taxes on soy, the country`s top crop. If she is weakened, farmers will push for less government intervention in farm exports and grain markets.
The presidents of neighboring Brazil and Chile have seen their popularity soar even as their economies go into recession because people in those countries approve of how they are handling the crisis.
But Fernandez`s measures to combat a dramatic economic slowdown and rising unemployment have not generated confidence even though she moved up the mid-term by four months to get them out of the way in case the crisis worsened.
The newly elected members of Congress will not take office until December, so uncertainty looms over how she will govern during the next five months.  Continued...
Original article