Electoral Reform in Argentina

🏛️ NATIONAL POLICY   |   ⏱️ Estimated reading time: 6 minutes (~1,100 words)

Electoral Reform in Argentina: Milei promotes the elimination of the PASO, Clean Record and changes in party financing

President Javier Milei announced from Israel that he was sending to Congress a bill that could radically redesign the rules of the democratic game before the 2027 legislative elections

📸 Reference image:

🔗  See image: Javier Milei — Reuters/AP (external reference)

Photo caption: President Javier Milei announced the electoral reform from Israel, where he participated in the Israeli Independence Day event with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Buenos Aires, April 22, 2026. — President Javier Milei shook the political chessboard on Tuesday by announcing, through a message published on the social network X from Israel, the immediate sending to the National Congress of a comprehensive electoral reform project. The initiative contemplates three backbones: the definitive elimination of the Primary, Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory (PASO); a reformulation of the system of financing political parties; and the reinstatement of the figure of Clean Record – already rejected by the Senate in May 2025 – to prevent people convicted of corruption from accessing national elective positions.

The announcement came as Milei was closing his third trip to Israel, where he participated in the celebrations for the anniversary of that state's independence and was seen with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The president sang the song "Libre", by Nino Bravo, before a crowd that cheered him, on a day that also marked a strong sign of foreign policy.

📌 Context: What are the PASO and why does Milei seek to eliminate them?

The Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory Primaries were created in 2009, during the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, through Law No. 26,571. Since then, they have been held on the third Sunday of August of each election year and enable all citizens – regardless of their affiliation – to participate in the internal selection of candidates of each political force.

Its operation fulfills three central functions: to order the internal competition of the parties, to enable competition between lists within the same force and to act as an electoral filter prior to the general election. However, the system is subject to sustained criticism of the cost to the public treasury of organizing an additional election whose result, in many cases, does not define truly competitive candidates.

During the 2025 legislative elections, Milei's government managed to suspend the PASO through a measure approved in the Senate on February 20 of that year. Now, the Executive is going a step further and proposing its permanent elimination from the Argentine electoral system.

💰 The debate over political financing

The second axis of the reform aims to transform the structure of economic support of party activity. The current system contemplates public financing for campaigns, free spaces for electoral advertising and ordinary operation of the parties, complemented by private contributions with regulated ceilings.

The proposal of the Executive Branch seeks to reduce the weight of the State in this scheme, in line with the cut in public spending that constitutes the core of the economic policy of the libertarian administration. If the change prospers, financing would tend to move to private sources or internal resources of each force, with a direct impact on the campaign structure and party organization, especially for the smaller parties.

🧾 Clean Record: a battle that the ruling party wants to reopen

The Clean Record initiative — which would prevent those convicted in the second instance from running for national elective office — has a recent and controversial legislative history. The bill obtained half approval in the Chamber of Deputies, but was rejected in the Senate in May 2025 in an extremely close vote.

The defeat in the upper house was marked by the vote of the missionary senators of the Renewal, Carlos Arce and Sonia Rojas Decut, whose position ended up tipping the balance against the ruling party. The law, if approved, would have left former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, convicted in the second instance in corruption cases, out of competence.

Now, the Casa Rosada is relaunching the proposal, but this time integrated into the broader electoral reform package, with the expectation that the political momentum and the pre-electoral context of 2027 will generate more favorable conditions for its approval.

🗣️ Political reactions

From the ruling bloc, Deputy Lilia Lemoine was one of the first to come out to defend the initiative on social networks: "The vote of each deputy and each senator in this project will be very revealing. Those who oppose it will make it clear that they see politics as a business," he said.

The Secretary of Communication, Javier Lanari, was in the same vein: "No good political party can oppose this agenda," he said, aiming to install a political cost for those who reject the reform.

However, in the corridors of Congress the panorama is more complex. Parliamentary sources from the PRO and the UCR expressed reservations regarding the elimination of the PASO, arguing that the mechanism, despite its costs, allows them to resolve their internal conflicts and legitimize themselves in the eyes of the electorate. "If we go together in Buenos Aires, we will have to resolve it this way or Karina (Milei) will come and want to impose the candidate on us," said a radical legislator off the record.

In the entourage of the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem, it was learned that the deputy from La Rioja had asked the Casa Rosada to delay sending the bill until he was certain about the votes necessary to approve it. Milei's own early announcement from Israel ended that possibility.

🔮 Perspectives: What can happen in Congress?

The formal submission of the bill opens a stage of intense negotiation in Congress. The ruling party knows that it faces two simultaneous fronts: the resistance of its own allies – PRO and radicalism – to the elimination of the PASO, and the need to recompose the support that was lacking to approve Ficha Limpia last year.

Political analysts consulted by this newspaper agree that the legislative treatment is unlikely to take place before the second half of the year, considering that in the first half of the year the focus will be on the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and that the proximity to the electoral calendar will condition the willingness of the blocs to vote on structural changes.

The government's bet seems to be long-term: to install public debate, make visible the position of each legislator and build political capital for 2027. "Impunity is over. The is over," Milei repeated, making it clear that the axis of the upcoming campaign already has a name.

🔗 Sources and references

🔗  Infobae — Milei announced the sending of the electoral reform

🔗  Profile — "The is over": Milei announced the reform of the electoral system

🔗  La Capital — Milei announced the sending of an electoral reform to Congress

🔗  Diario Uno — Milei launched the electoral reform that plans to eliminate the PASO

🔗  Río Negro — Milei announced an electoral reform

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