Right-winger Milei wins Argentina presidential poll

By Katy Watson, BBC South America correspondent

Right-wing libertarian outsider Javier Milei has won Argentina’s presidential run-off poll, according to provisional results.

Milei’s rival Sergio Massa called him to concede defeat.

The election comes at a difficult time for Argentina with rising inflation and an economy in crisis on peoples’ minds.

His proposals, which included detonating the central bank, won support with voters desperate for change.

Milei confounded pollsters by easily defeating the candidate of the governing Peronists, provisionally by more than ten points.

Provisional results showed Milei had nearly 56 percent of the vote compared with 44 percent for the Peronist Massa, with almost 90 percent of votes counted.

“Obviously the results are not what we expected. I have contacted Javier Milei to congratulate him,” Massa said.

“From tomorrow the responsibility of providing certainty belongs to Milei.”

It was a close race to the very end but the former pundit who at one point wielded a chainsaw on the campaign trail, won out.

A man who has been likened to former US President Donald Trump, and ex-Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, Javier Milei is untested.

But that was part of his appeal.

His talk of introducing the US dollar as the country’s official currency was met with applause by his supporters. Many economists though talk of financial disaster.

No matter, in a country where annual inflation is now over 140 percent and two in five people live in poverty, his win proves that Argentinians are fed up with traditional politics and economic disaster.

His victory means they are willing to try something new in an effort to make their lives better.

– This story was first published by the BBC