Judge said he has no hope, but waits for the count

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“That’s it, I have no hope that I can reverse it. Surely they will see me next week going to greet the mayor acknowledging his victory”. The phrase of Luis Juez referring to the result of the elections last Sunday went “viral” among the prosecutors and attorneys who began to count the votes in Pasos Perdidos de Tribunales II, where the scrutiny has been carried out since Wednesday morning.

Taking care not to call Llaryora governor-elect, Judge made this statement to a Buenos Aires radio station 24 hours after having instructed the representatives of Juntos por el Cambio to demand that “the polls be opened.”

With the passing of the hours, Judge clarified that Together for Change is giving “transparency” to the scrutiny, and that he does not have false expectations regarding the result due to the background of the Electoral Justice. In this context, he described Judge Marta Vidal as a “mamarracho”. “When Justice says ‘the result is this’, I will accept it.”

“Opening of polls”

On Tuesday, the Judge issued “express directives to the legal representatives of Juntos por el Cambio (para) that they request the electoral Justice to open the polls and read the corresponding minutes.”

In the afternoon, Marcos Ferrer, the radical who commanded the Together for Change campaign, should have clarified that in the jargon that action is “counting the record by handwritten record,” as the scrutiny is being carried out.

In the middle, there was a statement that must also be put in context: Aurelio García Elorrio on radio Pulxo. “The final difference, I sense it, will be more than three points (in favor of Llaryora). At this time Llaryora already knows the votes she had, and Judge knows the votes she had, ”said the leader of Encuentro Vecinal, whose space accumulated 3.1 percent, a percentage that will end up being key. García Elorrio is a staunch opponent of Llaryora, hence the weighting of his statements.

The projection of official data and provisional numbers indicate that Judge would have added some 797,418 throughout the province (272,733 in the city of Córdoba), his best personal mark as a candidate for governor. This was highlighted by his team: the leader of the Civic Front seeks to position himself as the head of the opposition in Córdoba, a role that he occupied with shared centrality.

Judge numbers

In 2011, Judge obtained 532,281 votes to be governor, although in that election the PRO did not exist and the Radical Civic Union obtained 412,140. Adding the current universe of Together for Change does not seem correct, since at that time the Civic Front formed a different ideological space.

Four years earlier, in 2007, Judge had achieved 565,239 votes and scratched the victory against Juan Schiaretti. As is known, he denounced fraud, although he was unable to prove it.

Regarding the harvest of votes in the last two municipal elections, 2015 and 2019, they were not good for him: 114,537 and 151,732, respectively, well below the 272,733 that he would be achieving in that election if the calculations are confirmed.

It is worth clarifying that in 2015 he ran in alliance with Olga Riutort, and four years later Juntos por el Cambio was divided, another particularity that limits the analysis regarding which space is the “owner of the votes.” In 2019, the two Cambiemos baskets added 287,311 votes.

Close to Judge they assure that with this performance at the polls, the senator will lead the provincial opposition endorsed, in addition, by the national horsemen that he “won” by defeating Peronism in the interior, where Llaryora suffered an important political defeat by losing several strongholds , such as Río Cuarto and General San Martín, to mention two.

Other members of Together for Change play down the role of Judge in the future: the opposition leadership obtained on Sunday will be in check if Rodrigo de Loredo prevails on July 23 in the municipal elections.

The representatives of Juntos por el Cambio are also focusing on other critical points of the scrutiny: confirming the victory in the Provincial Court of Accounts – where the Judge would have two historical figures from their space, Fernanda Leiva and Beltrán Corvalán; shore up victory in the legislature’s single-district legislature, which would give the opposition preponderance; and define the bench for Colón, where there is a vote-to-vote fight: so far Hacemos Unidos wins by 185 votes, another sign of the PJ’s crisis.

The coming judgment

A judge representation will return to the Unicameral: Juan Pablo Peirone, Daniel Juez, Walter Nostrala, Nancy Almada and Viviana Martocchia. In the Deliberative Council, in addition, it has four expected candidates beyond the result of the municipal election: Martín Juez, Graciela Villata, Celeste Lemos and Gustavo Guerrero.

In other words: on Sunday, Judge recovered muscle for his space, despite the fact that it was the fifth election he lost as an executive candidate. In between, he won two national legislatures, both leading the senator ticket: in 2009 as head of the Civic Front and in 2021 as an exponent of the strongest version of Cambiemos.

Now the second half remains, together with Rodrigo de Loredo.