The mayor of Buenos Aires, Argentina has been re-elected in a runoff, defeating the hand-picked candidate of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
With about 99 percent of the votes counted from Sunday's election, Mayor Mauricio Macri had 64 percent. Macri is a businessman and former head of a football (soccer) club. He ran against Senator Daniel Filmus, who took 36 percent of the vote and has conceded defeat.
The capital's 2.4 million voters represent nearly 10 percent of the country's voting population.
The elections were widely viewed as a test of President Fernandez's popularity.
However, analysts have said a defeat for Ms. Fernandez's candidate in Buenos Aires would not hurt her chances of winning re-election October 23. Under Argentina's electoral system, candidates can win the presidency in the first round with 40 percent of the vote as long as their nearest rival trails by at least 10 percent.
A candidate who gets more than 45 percent of the vote wins the presidential election outright.
Sunday's runoff election took place one week after the president's candidate for governor of Santa Fe province finished third in that race.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
