Three telecommunications companies have been awarded 20-year licenses to develop 5G in Argentina, making bids totalling over US$875 million on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Spanish Telefónica/Movistar was awarded a 50 MHz band for US$175 million. The companies are expected to build 5G stations within seven years in towns with up to 30,000 inhabitants. “The United States was involved from day zero,” Zuazo told the Herald. Zuazo suggested that it would have been interesting to have state-owned telecommunications company ARSAT keep the unawarded 50 MHZ.

The Lower House’s budget commission will start debating an addendum to the 2024 budget bill on Wednesday which aims to eliminate a series of tax expenditures to reach a 1% surplus. Overall, tax expenditure is equivalent to 4.72% of Argentina’s gross domestic product (GDP). In a message from the Economy Ministry, the government highlighted certain costs and “tax benefits with a negative impact on the budget” amounting to 2.24% GDP, suggesting that the Lower House debate reducing those specific topics when addressing the budget. On the cutting board are income tax breaks for judges, exporters with value-added tax (VAT) benefits, and an industrial development scheme in Tierra del Fuego province. These tax benefits, differential systems, and budget subsidies “particularly favor large companies and corporations” and have “a significant negative impact on the sustainability of public accounts by creating permanent tax collection reductions,” the document says.

Economy Minister and presidential frontrunner Sergio Massa promised to set Argentina on the path to balanced books by incentivizing exports, bringing forward the payment of some bonds, promoting a budget surplus, and shifting towards austerity. The fate of the IMF deal will be one of the major questions hanging over whoever moves into the Casa Rosada presidential palace on December 10. Argentina’s export income will depend largely on the fate of its grains harvests. Massa will compete for the presidency in a run-off election against far-right libertarian economist Javier Milei on November 19. You may also be interested in: Argentina and China agree on US$6.5 bn currency swap extension

After disparaging pretty much every sector of Argentine politics during his campaign, far-right presidential candidate Javier Milei (La Libertad Avanza, LLA) is changing tactics ahead of the November 19 run-off in order to garner support. “I wouldn’t discard having Patricia Bullrich as [a possible] security minister,” Milei said in an interview with TV news station La Nación+. “We really valued her work as minister,” he added, referring to her tenure as security minister during former president and JxC leader Mauricio Macri’s government (2015-2019). He added that he is also in talks with Macri, as well as former vice presidential candidate Florencio Randazzo, who ran alongside Juan Schiaretti. Economy Minister Massa finished unexpectedly in first place on Sunday with 36.7% of the vote while Milei came in second with almost 30%.

While the presidential race took the spotlight in Argentina’s election on Sunday, the makeup of the national Congress was also decided in the polls. UxP had nine seats up for renovation, and managed to keep all its members while gaining one more. The virtual standoff in the Upper House between UxP and Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) will be over. While the libertarian candidate is set to go to a run-off against Massa, his party made big gains in Congress, taking eight seats in the Upper House having previously held none. The Lower HouseUnión por la Patria: 104/257Juntos por el Cambio: 93/257La Libertad Avanza: 38/257Things look different in the Lower House, where UxP lost some ground despite managing to keep most of its seats.

The results: Massa took 36%, Milei 30%, and Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) candidate Patricia Bullrich 23.8%. Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) candidate Patricia Bullrich will have to watch from home. The biggest losers were Juntos por el Cambio, who lost 487,000 votes, while Córdoba Province Governor Juan Schiaretti (Hacemos por Nuestro País) nearly doubled his primary performance, raking in an additional 867,000 votes. Third: Bullrich’s inability to unite Juntos por el Cambio and her perceived policy illiteracy. UxP shocked analysts by adding more than 3.5 million voters.

Unión por la Patria (UxP) candidate and Economy Minister Sergio Massa is headed to a run-off against Javier Milei, early results from Sunday’s presidential elections show. The ruling coalition candidate received the most votes but failed to clear the threshold for an outright win. At 10:13 p.m., Massa was leading with 36.3% of the vote, Javier Milei of La Libertad Avanza (LLA) had 30.2% and Patricia Bullrich of the opposition bloc Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) stood third with 23.8%. The results mark a dramatic shift from August’s primaries when the ruling coalition came third. You may also be interested in: Javier Milei: the fringe economist pundit turned presidential frontrunner

Argentines finished voting in the country’s general elections at 6 p.m. on Sunday. In the 2015 and 2019 general elections, over 80% of the electoral roll turned up to vote. Speaking as polls closed, Julio Vitobello, general secretary for Argentina’s presidency, said that the first results would be disseminated once votes had been counted in a representative proportion of Argentina’s electoral districts. “Obviously, the vote data will take longer to upload in those districts, which make up 50% of the electoral roll,” Vitobello said. He thanked electoral workers, Argentina’s postal system, party volunteers and the armed forces for their work to organize the elections.

Updated 20:46The first results are expected at around 10 p.m. — check the Buenos Aires Herald’s homepage for updates! According to the National Electoral Chamber (CNE), 74% of eligible voters in Argentina’s general elections had voted by the time polls closed at 6 p.m, although some voters were still queuing. In both the 2015 and the 2019 general elections, 81% of the electoral roll had cast their ballots by the same time. All presidential candidates voted. In addition to the national vote, citizens in Catamarca, Entre Ríos, and Buenos Aires province are also voting for governor.

Buenos Aires City residents will use paper ballots to vote for all positions in Sunday’s general elections, ditching the voting machines used to choose local authorities in the August 13 primaries. Once at the voting station, voters will have one set of ballots for national authorities and another for local positions. Foreigners with permanent residence in Buenos Aires City are only allowed to vote for local authorities. You may also be interested in: Voting as a foreigner in Argentina: what you need to knowBA City authorities abandoned electronic voting machines in favor of paper ballots for all positions. BA city residents reported waiting for as much as two hours in some voting centers.

A slew of international far-right leaders will be present in Argentina for Sunday’s general elections to act as “international observers” invited by libertarian presidential hopeful Javier Milei. Among the most prominent are Brazilian politician Eduardo Bolsonaro and members of the right-wing Spanish party Vox, who have all voiced their support for the La Libertad Avanza (LLA) candidate. Jair Bolsonaro’s son will arrive on Sunday morning and will accompany LLA provincial deputy Nahuel Sotelo when he goes to vote. The Spanish delegation is headed by far-right European Parliament member Hermann Tertsch, far-right think tank Fundación Disenso director Jorge Martín Frías, and Madrid Forum director Eduardo Cader. Santiago Muzio, an Argentine lawyer and member of the French far-right institution Higher Institute of Economic Sociology (ISSEP, by its French acronym), will also be present.

In yet another victory for the Argentine scientific community, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) was awarded Spain’s Princess of Asturias award during a ceremony on Friday. Earlier this week, the National Administration of Drugs, Food, and Medical Technology (ANMAT, by its Spanish acronym) approved the first COVID-19 vaccine developed entirely in Argentina. Founded in 2003, DNDi aims to find new treatments for diseases that include malaria, mycetoma, and pediatric HIV, among many others. “In our world, in our increasingly hostile, volatile world, I hope we might take to heart another rule every actor is taught: it is all about listening.”The Princess of Asturias Foundation was established in 1981. The award ceremony is held each October in Oviedo, the capital of Asturias, Spain.

With that in mind, here are 15 points to consider as we approach Sunday’s vote. If that increase consists entirely of younger voters, it will increase Milei’s chances of winning in the first round. In the primaries, we vote by gut instinct, and in the first round we vote with our party or ideological identity. But in the second round, the earlier rounds are not the decisive factor. Macri came second, then won in the second round with a three percentage point advantage.

Aeroparque Internacional Jorge Newberry airport is functioning normally but with delays after a bomb threat halted all operations for close to an hour Friday morning. The threat, which was deemed false after a bomb squadron inspected the premises, was made against four flights from different companies set to leave the BA City airport for Mendoza. Passengers on board flights ready to depart as well as those in pre-boarding were evacuated, and all flights were temporarily halted as a bomb squadron searched the site. This is the third bomb threat made this week against companies or official institutions in Argentina. On Wednesday, the embassies of Israel and the United States in Argentina received bomb threats.

Argentina is voting for a new president on Sunday after four years of Alberto Fernández’s administration. In Argentina’s presidential elections, candidates need more than 45% of the votes, or at least 40% with a 10-point lead, to be elected in the first round. If none of this happens, the two most-voted candidates will go to a run-off on November 19. The rules of the eventual run-off are not the same as the general elections: candidates don’t have to reach a certain percentage of votes. Although both JxC candidates combined got more votes than UxP, Massa was the second most-voted individual candidate, surpassing Bullrich by one million votes.