Milei’s PASO Bid Stalls as Senate Votes Fall Short

On October 18, President Javier Milei’s government shelved plans to advance a bill suspending Argentina’s compulsory national primaries before the 2027 presidential election because it lacked enough Senate votes. La Libertad Avanza holds 21 of the Senate’s 72 seats; changing electoral rules requires 37. The government is 16 votes short.

The proposal would change how national elections work. The original bill sought to abolish the PASO permanently. The government now says it wants to suspend them for 2027, while keeping the system in law. It has also discussed adding a box to the single paper ballot, letting voters select an entire party list with one mark, and allowing national and provincial parties to form different alliances in each province.

Votes and negotiations

The government chose not to reconvene the relevant committee until it had enough votes to pass the measure. Its sources told TN: “Until there is a closed agreement we are not going to convene.” The account relied on unnamed officials and members of the ruling bloc. Neither the Senate nor Casa Rosada publicly announced a new committee date.

The Radical Civic Union and the PRO, the party of former president Mauricio Macri, hold 13 Senate seats between them. Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli has spoken with governors who say they would support suspending the primaries, but senators’ individual commitments remain uncertain. 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.

Reports gave different vote counts. 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 that Senate backing wasn’t there yet. Opposition lawmakers saw the delay as political and internal; that was their interpretation, not an established fact.

The stated cost and the voting burden

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 Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee last considered the reform on September 15 and finished without issuing an opinion. Its chairman, 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.

Budget timetable and legal status

The electoral proposal 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 to secure a committee opinion on Wednesday, October 28, and a floor vote on Wednesday, November 18, according to Noticias Argentinas and Perfil. TN reported that the government increasingly expected ordinary sessions to run into December.

The National Electoral Chamber, which oversees elections, asked in September that Congress approve any change 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. Available reporting didn’t establish how many of the 16 additional Senate votes were close to being secured, whether governors would demand concessions, or whether the government would seek suspension only for 2027 or continue pursuing abolition.