BUENOS AIRES — Argentine voters handed a decisive victory to Mauricio Macri on Sunday in the country's presidential election, delivering a strong mandate to an opposition political figure seeking to roll back some of the protectionist economic measures of the departing president, Cristina Fernandez.
With votes from about 70 percent of polling places counted, Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires and a former president of Boca Juniors, one of Argentina's most popular soccer teams, was leading with 53.1 percent of the vote, according to election officials, against 46.8 percent for Daniel Scioli, a former speedboat racer and vice president under former President Nestor Kirchner, the departing president's husband, who died in 2010. Scioli conceded defeat on Sunday night.
Running a largely nonconfrontational campaign in a society that has grown increasingly polarized under Fernandez, who succeeded her husband in 2007, Macri, 56, stunned the political establishment in October by forcing the race into a runoff and maintaining his surge in recent weeks. He ran to the right of his rivals, blending plans to overhaul the economy and promote the tolerance of various points of view on social issues.
Macri's victory revealed deep fissures in Argentina after 12 years of governance by Fernandez and her husband, with many voters expressing concern over the direction of the economy and frustration with Fernandez's blistering attacks on critics in the news media, business establishments and rival political parties.
In addition to grappling with galloping inflation and currency controls aimed at curbing capital flight, Macri will now face the challenge of governing with much of his opposition under the sway of Peronism, the ideologically diverse political grouping that has dominated Argentine politics for decades.