Kirchners lose seats in midterm vote: exit polls

The ruling party of President Cristina Kirchner and her husband, former leader Nestor Kirchner, lost seats in both houses of parliament in the midterm election, multiple exit polls showed.

The Kirchner power couple risks losing control of Congress for the first time since they came to power as their incumbent Peronist Party lost seats, according to at least five polls.

"The party in power risks losing their majority in the chamber of deputies having lost six seats in the province of Buenos Aires alone," said political scientist Rosendo Fraga, citing television exit polls conducted by his New Majority institute.

But if correct, the polls still show the president's party finishing ahead in the key Buenos Aires province, which is home to around 40 percent of the 28 million Argentines eligible to vote in the election.

The election for half of the 247 seats in the chamber of deputies and a third of 72 Senate seats is being seen as a referendum on the couple's time in power.

"This is a very important moment for the Argentines: we are choosing between two models," Cristina Kirchner told reporters after voting in Rio Gallegos, 2,800 kilometers (1,700 miles) south of Buenos Aires.

After a six-year rule, the Kirchners are struggling to keep a hold on Argentina's Senate and face the prospect of losing the majority in the lower house of Congress.

Nestor Kirchner, the head of the ruling Peronist Party, shepherded the nation through its recovery from the 2001 financial crisis, but the team now led by his presidential wife Cristina has failed to live up to promises to reduce poverty and is losing steam.

Renowned for overturning amnesty laws for military officers accused of torture and assassinations during the country's 1976-1983 "dirty war," he is running for a seat in Buenos Aires, supported by the governor and dozens of mayors.

"Argentina is living a crucial moment. Two models are battling it out," he said after voting. "We are optimistic."

But an alliance of dissident Peronists that includes wealthy entrepreneur Francisco de Narvaez, as well as Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri, could increase the chances of defeating the Kirchner bloc.

De Narvaez represents the return within the Peronist Party of neoliberal ideas of former president Carlos Menem.

Nestor Kirchner needs to win Buenos Aires province to be able to claim victory when faced with a probable loss of a majority in at least the lower house.

The opposition represents about 70 percent of the electorate, with some 30 percent for the Peronist Party.

Drug use in the slums, millions living in poverty and growing insecurity are some of the problems plaguing the nation of 40 million that once prided itself on having more in common with Europe than many of its troubled Latin American neighbors.

Agricultural workers have also been angered by the government's decision to hike export taxes by 25 percent on soy beans, one of the country's top exports.

In the last several months, the president's popularity has dropped from 55 percent to less than 30 percent.

Nestor Kirchner governed Argentina from 2003 to 2007, with high world prices for Argentine exports leading the economy to nine percent annual growth and boosting his popularity and that of his wife, Cristina, who took over in 2007.

Kirchner's husband recently warned skeptical voters of the risk of a return to the economic crisis of 2001, the worst in the country's history.

"It's a choice between a return to the past and the consolidation of a national project," he said.