Buenos Aires, October 27 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Argentina will head to a runoff presidential election next month after preliminary results from Sunday's vote show Kirchnerist candidate Daniel Scioli defeated conservative candidate Mauricio Macri by less than three percentage points. 

"We won the (open primary election), we won yesterday and we will do it again on November 22nd," Scioli told a press conference on Monday, ahead of the official result announcement.

With over 97 percent of votes counted, Scioli gained 36.9 percent to Macri’s 34.3 percent.  According to Scioli, over the next four weeks, boosted by the motivation to gain an extra nine million votes, his party is more hopeful than ever.

State news outlet Telam report that the Front for Victory’s candidates won in six of the 11 governor races on Sunday in the provinces of Catamarca, Formosa, Misiones, San Juan, Santa Cruz and Entre Rios.  Macri’s “Let’s Change” party won in two provinces, Buenos Aires and Jujuy, while other opposition parties took Chubut, San Luis and La Pampa. 

According to the Argentinian constitution, to win outright in the first round a candidate needs more than 40 percent of the vote and a lead of 10 percent over the other candidates, or more than 45 percent of the vote.  The next president will be sworn in on December 10th.

Exit polls initially suggested that Scioli had secured a clear win, with one politician declaring a “resounding victory,” inviting speculation that he won the 10 percent margin to avoid a runoff.  At a rally with supporters, Scioli said that voters did not want the fiscal austerity promised by Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires.

Voter turnout was about 81 percent, with some districts reaching up to 99 percent participation.

Scioli’s “Front for Victory” is the party of President Cristina Fernandez.  He has promised to continue her popular policies of social programs, welfare payments, industrialization and Latin American unity. 

President Cristina Fernandez will step down after eight years in power, following the four years of her late husband, Nestor Kirchner.

“There are two very different visions of the present and the future of Argentina which are at stake.  Our priorities are the humble, workers and our middle class," said Scioli from the stage at Luna Park in Buenos Aires.

Macri is the candidate of the right-wing opposition in Argentina, and governor of the province of Buenos Aires.  He is the son of Franco Macri, a businessman who owns one of the largest economic groups in the country.

Some of the key issues leading up to the election have been spiraling prices and inflation, steering foreign policy between greater ties with the European Union or China and Russia, subsidies and social programs, vulture funds, corruption, and agricultural taxation.