BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Sunday stressed the importance of voting in the Primary, Open, Simultaneous, and Mandatory elections (PASO), in which citizens choose the candidates that will face off in the legislative elections scheduled for Nov. 14.
"I have fulfilled my duty to vote. It is a beautiful day, because every time we vote in Argentina, we make democracy a little stronger, and for me, that is very important," said the president after casting his vote in southern Buenos Aires.
A total of 101,457 ballot boxes are open to voters in 17,092 electoral establishments, which have reported long lines and delays due to COVID-19 protocols.
The winners of the primaries will be able to compete in the legislative elections, in which 127 of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 24 of the 72 seats in the Senate are up for grabs.
The National Electoral Chamber reported that as of 2:00 p.m. local time, 36 percent of the electorate had voted.
The primary elections were implemented in 2011 with the aim of allowing each party to define who appears on their candidate lists during the national legislative elections. Enditem
