Milei Shelves Primaries Bill as Senate Votes Fall Short

President Javier Milei’s government is 16 votes short in the Senate, and it has chosen not to force a vote. On October 18, 2026, officials shelved plans to secure a committee opinion and hold a floor vote on suspending Argentina’s compulsory national primaries, known as PASO, in the last week of October. Government sources told TN the position was simple: “Until there is a closed agreement we are not going to convene.”

The Vote Math

The arithmetic explains the caution. La Libertad Avanza holds 21 of the Senate’s 72 seats. Changing electoral rules requires 37 votes. The ruling party is 16 short.

The Radical Civic Union (UCR) and the PRO, the party of former president Mauricio Macri, hold 13 seats between them. They’re the obvious partners, but they haven’t committed. 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.

Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli has spoken with governors who say they’d back suspending the primaries. Their senators’ individual commitments, though, remain uncertain. The account relies on unnamed officials and members of the ruling bloc. Neither the Senate nor Casa Rosada has issued a public statement setting a new committee date.

The Cost Argument

Santilli has made the case in fiscal terms. He said the primaries cost about US$200 million and could require voters in some provinces to cast ballots 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 conceding that the ruling party had no guaranteed votes.

The proposal has narrowed. The original bill would have abolished the primaries permanently. The government now talks about suspending them ahead of the 2027 presidential election, leaving the system in law. Perfil quoted libertarian sources in September as saying: “we will not get to eliminating the PASO, we will seek to suspend them.” The talks also cover adding a box to the single paper ballot so voters could select an entire party list with one mark, and allowing national and provincial parties to form different alliances in each province.

A Stalled Committee

The Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee last considered the reform on September 15, 34 days before today, after pausing since May 13. It ended without an opinion. Chairman Agustín Coto, a ruling-party senator, adjourned without setting a date to resume. A political-table meeting at Casa Rosada on October 13 did nothing to bring a new date forward.

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

Perfil described a split inside the government. The Menem brothers favor a harder line with allies, while Santilli, Bullrich and the Caputo team want agreements sooner. TN said deals with allies for 2027 were likely to be settled toward the end of the year.

Competing Priorities

The reform is competing with the 2027 budget, too. Budget Committee chairman and ruling-party deputy Alberto Benegas Lynch said on October 13 that the party aimed to secure a committee opinion on Wednesday, October 28, and a floor vote on Wednesday, November 18, according to Noticias Argentinas and Perfil. TN said the government increasingly expected ordinary sessions to run into December.

Perfil reported that House Speaker Martín Menem’s circle hoped the lower house could approve the reform by Friday, November 20, and didn’t want to leave it to extraordinary sessions. Casa Rosada had also considered deciding the issue in early 2027, Perfil reported in September.

There’s a deadline of sorts. 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. Without congressional action, the primaries stay in place. The sources didn’t establish how many of the 16 missing votes are close, whether governors will demand concessions, or whether the government will settle for suspension in 2027 or keep pushing for abolition.

Why This Matters:

The delay shows how a government with a reform mandate still has to build a majority one senator at a time. For taxpayers, the stakes are concrete: Santilli’s estimate of US$200 million in primary costs is money the state spends whether or not the contests change outcomes. The shift from abolition to suspension suggests the government is trading ambition for passage, a pragmatic step that keeps the law intact but defers the harder fight. Electoral rules also need stability. With the National Electoral Chamber asking for any change before the end of 2026, each week of stalled talks narrows the window for clear rules ahead of the 2027 presidential race. And the reform is jostling with the budget for floor time, a reminder that fiscal housekeeping and institutional change draw on the same limited political capital.