Argentina elects pro-market Macri after Kirchner's 12 years rule

Argentina, in a stinging repudiation of outgoing leftist President Cristina Kirchner, elected a pro-market government president to take the helm of Latin America's third-biggest economy.

Conservative president-elect Mauricio Macri, fresh from yesterday's run-off election win, promised a "marvelous" new era was starting for his country, beleaguered by years of economic instability.

A former football executive and favorite candidate of big businesses and foreign investors, Macri is expected to be Argentina's most economically liberal leader since the 1990s.

"This is a historic day, a change of era which is going to be marvelous," a beaming Macri told cheering supporters after his leftist rival Daniel Scioli conceded defeat.
 
"We cannot waste time on revenge or score-settling," he said late yesterday. Shortly afterwards he swung his hips, dancing Argentine "cumbia" to deafening music.

Macri and Scioli fought a tense battle for votes in a country largely weary after 12 years under leftist leader Cristina Kirchner and her predecessor and late husband Nestor Kirchner.

Breaking with 12 years of leftist rule, Macri has vowed to ease foreign trade and dollar restrictions.

Celebrating yesterday, he said it was time "to build an Argentina with zero poverty, defeat drug-trafficking and strengthen democracy" in the country.

Official results gave Macri 51.8% of the votes and 48.2% for Scioli, with 95% of ballots counted.

Macri is expected to have warmer relations with countries such as Britain and the United States.

Kirchner has had sharp words for them at times, including with Britain in the territorial dispute over the Falkland Islands, known in Spanish as Las Malvinas.

"We want to have good relations with all countries," Macri said yesterday.

He has vowed to negotiate with foreign creditors who have sued Argentina in the US courts for unpaid debts. Kirchner branded hedge funds "vultures."

But voters who backed Scioli fear Macri's reforms will roll back the social and trade policies of the combative outgoing president that have benefited the poor and small businesses.

Macri has proposed to immediately lift restrictions on imports and on US dollars.

Scioli has warned that would trigger a brutal devaluation of the peso, weakening ordinary Argentines' incomes.

Analysts say Macri may struggle to push his reforms through a hostile Congress.