ARGENTINA: A trickle of voters turned up early yesterday morning at election booths in Buenos Aires as 25 million Argentinians prepared to elect a new president amid widespread indifference and wearied resignation.
The remarkable comeback of disgraced former president, Mr Carlos Menem, has dominated the local media, yet the twice-elected Mr Menem still commands only 20 per cent of voter intentions articulated in polls of dubious value. Mr Menem owns a private TV channel and has attempted to generate a sense of victory in the making to impress the estimated 20 per cent of voters still undecided on the eve of the ballot.
Nineteen candidates are standing for office, but just five have any chance of advancing to the second round, which seems certain given the low margins of support for any single presidential hopeful.
Mr Menem's main rivals are two fellow Peronist party candidates, Mr Ricardo Lopez Murphy and Mr Nestor Kirchner, standing on almost identical centre-right political platforms.
Mr Murphy was the nation's economy minister for a fortnight during the chaotic political unrest which followed the country's default on its debt payments in 2001, while Mr Kirchner is a respected rural governor with a reputation for competent public administration.
The disastrous economic crisis was precipitated by Mr Menem, who sold off state assets, repealed labour legislation and tripled the external debt during his two periods in office, between 1989 and 1999.
Middle-class voters frightened of radical social activism and growing crime rates have been swayed by his pledge to crack down on protests and crime, bringing the army on to the streets if necessary.
Mr Menem has faced charges of illegal arms-dealing, amassing a huge fortune in Swiss bank accounts and accepting a $10 million bribe from the Iranian government to cover up its role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural centre in which 85 people were killed.
The leading non-Peronist candidate is Ms Elisa Carrio of the Alternative Republic of Equals (ARI), who has fallen from grace after leading the polls almost all of last year.
Ms Carrio, a prominent lawyer and a committed Catholic, was criticised for wearing a huge cross round her neck on the campaign trail but won popularity for her crusade against corruption, launching several high-profile cases against Mr Menem.
A campaign split with her Social Democrat allies harmed Ms Carrio's chances while the drop in poll ratings was matched by a steady reduction in the size of the cross she wore as she reached out to a broader section of the electorate.
Ms Patricia Walsh, daughter of a writer, Rodolfo Walsh, stood yesterday for the United Left, a non-existent concept in a country fragmented by sectarian political division. The country's most popular left-wing politician, Mr Luis Zamora, rejected all overtures to throw his hat in the ring, opting instead to stand for local office in Buenos Aires, an area where he has won the highest number of votes in previous legislative elections.
The kidnapping of a prominent human rights activist, Ms Susana Abalo, on the eve of the election raised fears of a return to the totalitarian past when military death squads "disappeared" 30,000 citizens in an orgy of violence.
Ms Abalo, a wheelchair-bound MS sufferer, has been attacked three times by paramilitaries who demanded she abandon her social work in impoverished neighbourhoods. Argentina's state security forces have traditionally been deployed to terrorise social movements and demoralise activists working outside the traditional party system.
"People must be brave and break free of their fears, recover their sense of history and the hope of a better future for their children," said Ms Carrio.