Argentina's general elections kicks off

Some 28.6 million Argentine voters went to the polls on Sunday for presidential and parliamentary elections. A total of 12,506 voting centers across the country opened at 8 a.m. local time (1100 GMT) and will close at 6 p.m. (2100 GMT), and preliminary results are expected shortly after the end of the voting, the National Office of the Electoral Processes said. Argentines will choose their new president as incumbent President Cristina Fernandez is seeking her second four-year term for the ruling Front for Victory party. In 2007, Fernandez was elected as Argentina's first female president. Popular with young voters, she pledged to boost the country's economy, science and education, human rights protection and regional integration with other Latin American nations after taking office. A Thursday opinion poll showed she was likely to easily win Sunday's re-election with nearly 55 percent of the votes and a massive lead over her arch rival, Hermes Binner. Binner, candidate of the Ample and Progressive Front (FAP), has jumped to second place in the latest poll with roughly 16 percent of the votes. The 68-year-old doctor and governor of Santa Fe province is the grandson of a Swiss-German immigrant family. As a moderate leftist, he promised to reduce hunger and poverty and increase health care and education opportunities if elected.