cristina fernandez de kirchner

BUENOS AIRES - Argentine first lady and senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is set for a resounding victory in the presidential election one week away, according to nine different polls published on Sunday.


The polls almost all show Fernandez with a wide enough margin to win in a first round of voting, which would require her to receive more than 45 percent of the vote or exceed 40 percent with a lead of more than 10 percentage points over the second-place finisher.

Fernandez, who is expected to follow the center-left policies of her popular husband, President Nestor Kirchner, will be this South American country's first elected woman president if she wins.

The election is on Oct. 28.

Polls show Fernandez with support of between 39.1 percent and almost 48 percent. But she is seen winning a portion of the undecided voters, which would put her over 40 percent in all cases.

Elisa Carrio, a lawyer and long-time legislator like Fernandez, is in second place with between 15.7 percent and 18.1 percent, according to the polls.

Former economy minister Roberto Lavagna is seen in third place with 10.6 percent to 16.5 percent, the polls said.

All three candidates are left or center-left.
BUENOS AIRES, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The showy suits, the heavy makeup, the spike heels -- Argentina's first lady and presidential front-runner has made headlines for her appearance as much as her politics.

Long-time senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will become Argentina's first elected woman president if she wins elections on Oct. 28, as polls forecast.

Although she's a powerful speaker and accomplished lawyer, it is her glamorous style that has inspired everything from cartoon jabs and snide remarks to unabashed admiration.

"Those who criticize her are stuck in the past, when women were not supposed to use short skirts or makeup. But she has the right to dress up and look attractive," said Patricia Coronel, 31, a mother of six.

The 54-year-old Fernandez wears her dark hair long and uses eye-catching accessories: wide belts, lacy fans and bright red berets.

Those feminine accents make her flashier than Segolene Royal, France's elegant former presidential candidate, and contrast with the conservative look of U.S. presidential contender Hillary Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel or Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

Biographers say that even as a teenager, Fernandez would not leave the house without full makeup and nail polish.

Fernandez's defenders say her looks are scrutinized because she is a powerful woman in a sexist society and she complains that a man in her place would not draw similar comment.
WHEN Senator Hillary Clinton appeared on Capitol Hill displaying a hint of cleavage, she sparked off a media furore about women in power, the way they dress and the role of femininity in American politics.

There has been no such fuss over the presidential campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, whose enthusiasm for mascara and designer handbags has played no small part in her seemingly effortless stroll towards victory in next Sunday's elections in Argentina.

Like Clinton, Kirchner, 54, is the politically accomplished wife of a president with her own designs on the presidency. She is a Peronist senator from Buenos Aires province; her husband is Nestor Kirchner, the architect of Argentina's economic revival, whose decision to stand down so that his wife can succeed him opens the door to a decade or more of family rule.

But unlike Clinton, the woman to whom most Argentinians refer simply as Cristina has deployed her glamour and sexuality as potent weapons on her way to a goal that not even the legendary Eva Peron was able to achieve.

With recent polls showing her up to 30 points clear of her nearest rivals, Kirchner seems certain to become the first woman elected to the Casa Rosada, the pink-walled presidential palace in Buenos Aires. (Isabel Peron, Evita's successor as wife to Juan Peron, the former president, was appointed president when her husband died.)

In the process, Kirchner has been coolly rewriting the rules of political campaigning. While every fashion move that Clinton makes is relentlessly analysed for its potential impact on voters in Iowa � from her latest hair-style to whether or not she laughs too loudly - Kirchner has gaily shrugged off accusations that she is "frivolous".

She is storming to victory with the help of a leisurely timetable that reportedly requires at least an hour a day to be set aside for her make-up.

Since she launched her campaign in La Plata last July - with a picture of Clinton beamed onto the wall behind her - Kirchner has held only a handful of election rallies. She rarely gives interviews, does not kiss babies and has spent more time buttering up foreign leaders in Europe and the United States than grubbing for votes at home. Local analysts variously describe her campaign as "ultra-cautious" and "virtually invisible".

In one sense, she has never needed to worry. Her husband's presidency has been economically successful, with unemployment and poverty markedly reduced. Argentina's economy has grown by 8% a year for the past five years, faster than those of much of the western world.

Although Argentina still owes billions and is facing growing inflationary pressures, most voters seem to believe that the president's wife will keep the country afloat.

Kirchner's nearest challenger is Elisa Carrio, a temperamental former congresswoman, who had to interrupt her campaign last month to face slander charges (she was acquitted).

Carrio, 50, has been plagued by internal bickering in her opposition coalition and, an obese chain-smoker, is the antithesis of Kirchner's Evita-like glamour.

In one recent poll, Carrio had 14.9% of the vote, nearly 30 points behind Kirchner but ahead of Roberto Lavagna, a former economics minister who has proved a glum and leaden candidate. There are 11 other no-hoper candidates, reflecting Nestor Kirchner's success in dividing the opposition.

Tough economic choices may lie ahead, and the loyalty of the Peronist "shirtless ones" could be sorely tested if the Kirchners lose their grip on inflation. For now, though, "Cristina" is showing that a little lipstick goes a long way in dazzling the masses.
Tossing back her dyed auburn hair, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner strode beaming on to the stage of the hotel ballroom and waved to the cheering crowd.

In pictures: Argentina's new Evita


Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner: The new Evita


As she stood in her neatly tailored scarlet jacket, blowing kisses to her supporters, she exuded all the confidence to which she is entitled as Argentina's presidential front runner, a woman of style and ambition who is dominating the polls.

More than 60 years after Eva Perón, the actress who became the president's wife, first spun her magic over an adoring public, the macho world of Argentine politics is again in thrall to a glamorous, feisty First Lady.

Mrs Kirchner, already a popular national senator, is poised to sweep into the Casa Rosada (Pink House) presidential palace in next Sunday's elections after her husband Nestor, the incumbent, stepped aside � honouring an earlier promise to do so after his first term � and nominated her to replace him. Her success as the candidate of the Victory Front alliance will make her the most powerful woman in Latin America.

At the rally of Left-wing groups last week, Mrs Kirchner, 54, sought to burnish her populist and Perónist credentials, offering promises about economic growth, social justice and greater rights for workers as the country recovers from the economic meltdown that robbed millions of their savings five years ago and sent unemployment soaring to 25 per cent.

advertisement"It's not a road filled with roses," she warned her audience. "There will be conflict and debate � but we summon you to join us in building a better country."

She keeps her speeches short by Latin American standards, confining herself to less than 20 minutes without notes or autocue, and delivers her message in a chatty, lightly rasping voice, occasionally kicking her left leg sideways as she talks.

Observers say she has worked hard to "feminise" her speaking style, softening her more strident notes and restraining her tendency to jab her finger when making a point.

Showing how eagerly she has embraced the international trappings of high office, she was joined on stage by Isabel Allende, daughter of Salvador, the communist Chilean leader assassinated in the 1973 coup.

Although Mrs Kirchner is a well-known politician in her own right, the direct dynastic handover from her husband is unprecedented in a modern democracy. Even Hillary Clinton, to whom she is often compared, must undergo the trials of the American primary system as she seeks to emulate her husband Bill, just as George W Bush had to do when he followed in his father's footsteps.

But for Argentines, the only comparison that matters is with the second wife of Col Juan Perón, who first became president in 1946. Evita, as she is universally known, died in 1952 aged just 33, but left an indelible mark as a champion of women and the poor even though � unlike Isabel, her successor in the Perón home, who became president � she never actually held office.

While Mrs Kirchner maintains the fiction that she is not trying to portray herself as a modern-day Evita, her campaign is busy encouraging flattering analogies with the iconic figure.

At one boisterous rally in the provincial town of Santa Fé, Mrs Kirchner's appearance was preceded by a flickering montage of black-and-white shots of the Peróns.

Mrs Kirchner kept her public appearances to a minimum until the last month, as her camp successfully portrayed her campaign as more of a coronation than an electoral contest.

Instead, she made a string of grand trips, to New York, Spain and across Latin America, prompting her critics to refer to her sarcastically as "Queen Cristina".

Some have been even blunter. "Eva Perón was a real queen, not a Botox queen," remarked Elisa Carrio, the leading opposition candidate, voicing the widespread belief that Mrs Kirchner's youthful features and taut skin owe much to modern science.

Indeed, her appearance and style have attracted as much media attention in Argentina as her policies, not least because she has rarely goes beyond easy, populist platitudes.

Commentators have noted a makeover in recent months as she has toned down her rhetorical delivery and scaled back on her enthusiastic deployment of make-up.

Opinion polls consistently show her support running between 40 and 50 per cent, with Mrs Carrio at least 25 points behind. Under Argentina's electoral system, that means she is well on her way to winning the presidency without a run-off.

Mrs Kirchner appears to be coasting to victory on the back of the economic rebound over which her husband has presided. Opposition candidates complain that the government is suppressing the true economic figures, but their warnings of trouble ahead are largely unheeded.

Nor are various corruption allegations having any impact. "The Argentine people want to believe the best," said Luis Tonelli, a political commentator and adviser to a former president. "They don't want to look back at the abyss."

Mrs Kirchner is expected to maintain her husband's interventionist policies, but will not adopt his earnest and low-key style � instead using her liking for the glamour of the job to raise Argentina's profile abroad.

The couple, both born to middle class families, met at law school in Buenos Aires and married in 1975. They returned to Mr Kirchner's home province of Patagonia and launched their political careers in a Left-wing faction of the Perónist Justicialist Party. They have two adult children.

While Mr Kirchner rose through the regional ranks to become governor, his wife later pursued her career on the national stage as a senator.

She is nicknamed La Pinguina (The Lady Penguin) because of her husband's southern roots, and their acolytes are known as los pinguinos. Now their takeover of the country's political landscape has been dubbed "the March of the Penguins".

There is no election debate over the Falkland Islands: all candidates agree that Las Malvinas are Argentine territory. But Mrs Kirchner is expected to tread carefully on a tightrope between Washington and her more anti-American neighbours, not least the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez.

She has also been trying to woo foreign investors who were scared off by the country's foreign debt default in 2001.

"She's already very much part of the inner circle of decision-makers of just four or five people," Torcuato di Tella, a minister of culture under her husband, told The Sunday Telegraph. "She's less irascible than her husband, more open to foreign investors and likes to cultivate the so-called intellectual crowd."

Mr Tonelli said the husband-to-wife succession was to be expected. "The family business is politics and the Kirchners are co-owners. They each have a half share, so now it's Cristina's turn to run for president. I'm sure this was the deal between them.

"The main change will be on international affairs. Nestor hates leaving the country, but Cristina's the opposite. She'll clearly take on a much higher profile abroad."

Mrs Kirchner may share Evita's penchant for publicity, but for many Argentines the similarities end there. In a cafe behind the Evita museum in Buenos Aires, 87-year-old Juan Ernesto Fumagelli ate a slice of lemon tart as he mulled over the past.

"Evita was a unique woman who made things happen and had a wonderful way with people," said Mr Fumagelli, who saw her close-up at public events three times in his youth. "We will have to see what Cristina can do, but there will never be another Evita."

Argentina since the second world war

With his second wife Eva at his side, Juan Perón pursued populist pro-union and protectionist policies after he came to power in 1946. He was overthrown in 1955, but returned from exile in 1973 to re-assume the presidency.

His third wife and vice-president, Isabel, replaced him after his death a year later, but she was toppled by a coup in 1976.

Brutal junta rule ensued. Thousands disappeared during the so-called Dirty War, before the military regime was brought down after the 1982 defeat by Britain in the Falklands War.

Years of boom-and-bust culminated in the economic crisis, violent street protests and political upheaval of 2001 and 2002. Once held up as a role model by the IMF, Argentina defaulted on its foreign debts. Recovery began as prices of its agricultural exports boomed.