Milei Government Shelves Vote on Primaries Bill

On October 18, President Javier Milei’s government shelved plans to advance a bill on Argentina’s compulsory national primaries to a Senate committee opinion and floor vote. Officials said they wouldn’t reconvene the committee until they had enough votes. The proposed suspension of the primaries ahead of the 2027 presidential election is now caught in the familiar machinery of backroom bargaining.

The votes are the gate

“Until there is a closed agreement we are not going to convene,” government sources told TN. The account relied on unnamed officials and members of the ruling bloc; neither the Senate nor Casa Rosada publicly set a new committee date.

La Libertad Avanza holds 21 of the Senate’s 72 seats. Changing electoral rules requires 37 votes, leaving the ruling party 16 short. The Radical Civic Union (UCR) and the PRO, the party of former president Mauricio Macri, together hold 13 seats, but their support isn’t settled.

Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli has spoken with governors who say they’d support suspending the primaries. That hasn’t translated into firm commitments from the senators whose votes the government needs. La Nación’s October 18 count treated the ruling bloc’s 21 senators and three provincial senators as firm: Julieta Corroza of Neuquén and Natalia Gadano and José María Carambia of Santa Cruz. Several Radicals, the PRO bloc and senators tied to the governor of Tucumán remained uncommitted.

The Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee last considered the reform on September 15, after a pause since May 13. It ended without issuing an opinion. Committee chairman and ruling-party senator Agustín Coto adjourned without setting a date to resume. A government political-table meeting at Casa Rosada on October 13 produced no new committee date either.

A changing proposal, same political machinery

The current talks would suspend the national primaries for 2027 and add a box to the single paper ballot, letting voters select an entire party list with one mark. The original bill proposed abolishing the primaries permanently; the government now talks about suspending them, leaving the system in law. Perfil quoted libertarian sources in September: “we will not get to eliminating the PASO, we will seek to suspend them.”

The government has also discussed allowing national and provincial parties to form different alliances in each province. But the talks remain between officials, governors and lawmakers; the source account reports no grassroots or community-organized response to the proposal.

Santilli said the primaries cost about US$200 million and could require voters in some provinces to vote five or six times a year. In an interview published by Infobae on October 18, he told broadcaster LN+: “the electoral reform will happen,” while acknowledging that the ruling party had no guaranteed votes. The government is making the savings argument as it negotiates a change to the rules voters would face.

Reports differ on how close the government is to winning support. Perfil reported on October 16 that the Speaker’s office considered lower-house votes secured, opposition deputies believed the government already had the votes, and Santilli thought only a few Senate votes were missing. The same report said ruling-party Senate leader Patricia Bullrich confirmed Senate backing wasn’t there yet. Opposition lawmakers suggested the delay was political and internal; that was their interpretation, not an established fact.

Budget pressure, uncertain outcome

The proposed reform is competing with work on the 2027 budget. TN placed the lower-house budget vote in mid- or late November. Budget Committee chairman and ruling-party deputy Alberto Benegas Lynch said on October 13 that the ruling party aimed for a committee opinion on Wednesday, October 28, and a floor vote on Wednesday, November 18, as reported by Noticias Argentinas and Perfil.

TN said the government increasingly expected ordinary sessions to be extended into December. Perfil reported that House Speaker Martín Menem’s circle hoped the lower house could approve the reform by Friday, November 20, rather than leave it to extraordinary sessions. Perfil had also reported in September that Casa Rosada had considered deciding the issue in early 2027.

The National Electoral Chamber, which oversees elections, asked in September that any change be approved before the end of 2026. Bullrich supported that request at the time. Under current law, the primaries remain in place unless Congress passes a change. The sources don’t establish how many of the 16 additional Senate votes are close to being secured, whether governors will demand concessions, or whether the government will settle for suspending the PASO only for 2027 or keep seeking abolition.