2003 Buenos Aires City elections

General elections were held in the City of Buenos Aires on 24 August 2003 to elect the Chief of Government (mayor) and entirety of the City Legislature. As no mayoral candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held on 14 September 2003, in which incumbent Aníbal Ibarra, of the Broad Front, defeated Mauricio Macri of the Commitment to Change (CpC) coalition to be re-elected as Chief of Government of Buenos Aires.

2003 Buenos Aires City elections

Mayoral election
← 2000 24 August 2003 (first round) 14 September 2003 (second round) 2007 →
Turnout	69.83% (first round) 70.50% (second round)
Nominee Aníbal Ibarra Mauricio Macri Party Broad Front Independent Alliance FP CpC Running mate Jorge Telerman Horacio Rodríguez Larreta Popular vote 928,056 807,385 Percentage 53.48% 46.52%
First round results by electoral circunscription Second round results by electoral circunscription
Chief of Government before election Aníbal Ibarra FG–FP Elected Chief of Government Aníbal Ibarra FG–FP
City Legislature
← 2000 24 August 2003 2005 →
All 60 seats in the City Legislature
Turnout	69.83%
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– CpC Mauricio Macri 36.15 23 New FP Aníbal Ibarra 31.44 21 New AyL Luis Zamora 10.76 8 New UPRBA Patricia Bullrich 9.92 6 New UCR Cristian Caram 2.20 1 New IU Vilma Ripoll 1.89 1 −1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The entirety of the City Legislature was elected for the last time, and following the election, through a draw it was decided which half of the elected legislators (30 out of 60) would complete a full four year-term, and which half would only serve a two year-term (due to be renewed in the 2005 legislative election).^[1]

The elections were due to be held in 2004, but were held earlier in order to unify the national electoral calendar with that of Buenos Aires City, following an agreement between Ibarra and President of Argentina Eduardo Duhalde.^[2]

Background

The 2000 elections in Buenos Aires resulted in the election of progressive former prosecutor Aníbal Ibarra as mayor. With 49.30% of the vote, Ibarra did not win the necessary 50% to win in a single round, and should have gone on to face the second-most voted candidate, former economy minister Domingo Cavallo of Action for the Republic. However, Cavallo dropped off the race shortly after the first round following backlash against his denial of the election's results, which he called "a cheat".^[3][4]

Following negotiations between Ibarra and Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde, it was agreed the next general election in the City of Buenos Aires would be held earlier than originally intended, in order to make the city's elections match the national and provincial electoral calendars, since after the return of democracy to Argentina in 1983, no national nor provincial elections were held on even years.^[5]

Part of the agreement also meant the entirety of the City Legislature was elected for the last time, and following the election, through a draw it was decided which half of the elected legislators (30 out of 60) would complete a full four year-term, and which half would only serve a two year-term (due to be renewed in the 2005 legislative election).^[6]

Candidates

Coalition		Mayoral candidate (party) Prior political experience	Vice mayoral candidate (party) Prior political experience	Parties
		Aníbal Ibarra (FG) Chief of Government (2000–2003)	Jorge Telerman (PJ) Secretary of Culture (2000–2003)	FG FPV PS ARI PI MyMS PAIS GESTA PDC PRD
		Mauricio Macri (Ind.) President of Boca Juniors (1995–2007)	Horacio Rodríguez Larreta (PJ) Head of the General Tax Directorate (2001–2002)	PJ PDP PD PF UNIR APR PPC TPLJ PA PGP
		Luis Zamora National Deputy (2001–2005)	Sergio Daniel Molina	AyL
		Patricia Bullrich (UPT) Minister of Labour (2001)	Carlos Manfroni (Recrear)	Recrear UPT
		Cristian Caram (UCR) City Legislator (2000–2003)	Ernesto Aldo Isuani (UCR)	UCR
		Vilma Ripoll (MST) City Legislator (2000–2003)	Herman Schiller (Ind.)	MST PO

Results

Chief of Government

Candidate		Running mate	Party	First round		Second round
				Votes	%	Votes	%
	Aníbal Ibarra	Jorge Telerman	Porteño Force	590,051	33.75	928,056	53.48
	Mauricio Macri	Horacio Rodríguez Larreta	Commitment to Change	660,748	37.79	807,385	46.52
	Luis Zamora	Sergio Daniel Molina	Self-determination and Freedom	216,168	12.36
	Patricia Bullrich	Carlos Manfroni	Union to Recreate Buenos Aires	171,765	9.82
	Cristian Caram	Ernesto Aldo Isuani	Radical Civic Union	33,324	1.91
	Vilma Ripoll	Herman Schiller	United Left	21,203	1.21
	Lía Méndez	Graciela Cassiani	Humanist Party	11,000	0.63
	Jorge Selser	María Magdalena Macaggi	Authentic Socialist Party	6,054	0.35
	Marcelo Ramal	María Rachid	Workers' Party	5,449	0.31
	Lucio César Somoza	Juan Manuel María Soaje	People's Reconstruction Party	4,838	0.28
	Joaquín Mario Vilella	Ricardo Marcelino Gargiulo	Movement of Pensioners and Youth	4,567	0.26
	Ariel Julio Ferrari	Fernando Bruno Piqué Covone	Movement of Pensioners in Action	4,153	0.24
	Luis Alberto Clementi	Miriam Lilian Mac Allister	Integration and Development Movement	2,425	0.14
	Christian Castillo	Andrea D'Atri	Socialist Workers' Party	2,425	0.14
	Mariana de Alva	Lucio Tato	Party for a Republic with Opportunities	1,883	0.11
	Mariano Mera Figueroa	Beatriz María Sollazo	Movement for Dignity and Independence	1,720	0.10
	Julián Licastro	Guillermo Pinto Kramer	White Party of Buenos Aires City	1,717	0.10
	Juan Ricardo Mussa	Irene Fernanda Herrera	Front of Workers, Unemployed and Pensioners for the Unity of Buenos Aires City	1,883	0.11
	Jorge Guidobono Rey	Ramón Ferreyra	Revolutionary Socialist League	1,492	0.09
	Enrique Javier Martorell	Fernando Jorge Aren	Republican Reconstruction Party	1,338	0.08
	Andrea Fabiana Salmini	Víctor Rodolfo Onesti	Socialist Advance Movement	1,277	0.07
	Julio Roberto Muñoz	Marta Inés Enciso	Citizen Integration Movement	1,151	0.07
	César Augusto Arias	Rita Alicia Fiorillo	Party of the Intermediate Generation	1,111	0.06
	Juan Carlos Beica	Jorge Alberto Rosales	Socialist Convergence	804	0.05
Total				1,748,546	100.00	1,735,441	100.00
Valid votes				1,748,546	96.97	1,735,441	94.75
Invalid votes				15,512	0.86	45,481	2.48
Blank votes				39,168	2.17	50,664	2.77
Total votes				1,803,226	100.00	1,831,586	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				2,597,993	69.41	2,597,993	70.50
Source: [7]

Legislature

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats
	Commitment to Change		Porteño Hope Front	211,783	12.20	8
			Commitment to Change	179,730	10.35	7
			Porteño Generational Movement	140,645	8.10	5
			Centre Alliance	95,398	5.50	3
		Total		627,556	36.15	23
	Porteño Force		Porteño Force	240,270	13.84	9
			Party of the City	177,334	10.22	7
			Party of the Democratic Revolution	128,173	7.38	5
		Total		545,777	31.44	21
	Self-determination and Freedom			217,583	12.53	8
	Union to Recreate Buenos Aires			172,219	9.92	6
	Radical Civic Union			38,198	2.20	1
	United Left			32,833	1.89	1
	Humanist Party			14,312	0.82	0
	Party of the Folk			9,884	0.57	0
	Authentic Socialist Party			8,760	0.50	0
	Workers' Party			7,691	0.44	0
	Christian Democratic Party			5,380	0.31	0
	People's Reconstruction Party			5,194	0.30	0
	Party of Pensioners in Action			4,611	0.27	0
	Citizen Action Party			3,970	0.23	0
	Movement for the Recovery of the Republic			3,794	0.22	0
	Movement of Pensioners and Social Leaders			3,692	0.21	0
	Movement of Pensioners and Youth			3,660	0.21	0
	Socialist Workers' Party			3,209	0.18	0
	Integration and Development Movement			3,111	0.18	0
	Change with Social Justice			3,038	0.18	0
	Party for a Republic with Opportunities			2,546	0.15	0
	Movement for Dignity and Independence			2,153	0.12	0
	White Party of the Federal Capital			2,049	0.12	0
	Front of Workers, Unemployed and Pensioners for the Unity of Buenos Aires City			1,885	0.11	0
	Revolutionary Socialist League			1,760	0.10	0
	Republican Reconstruction Party			1,747	0.10	0
	New Social Hope			1,630	0.09	0
	Movement for Socialism			1,468	0.08	0
	Party of the Intermediate Generation			1,384	0.08	0
	Citizen Integration Movement			1,355	0.08	0
	Reconquest Party			1,282	0.07	0
	Socialist Convergence			1,070	0.06	0
	Party for Social Convergence			1,016	0.06	0
Total				1,735,817	100.00	60
Valid votes				1,735,817	95.68
Invalid votes				16,598	0.91
Blank votes				61,705	3.40
Total votes				1,814,120	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				2,597,993	69.83
Source: [7]

See also

• 2003 Argentine general election
• List of mayors and chiefs of government of Buenos Aires