La Libertad Avanza Struggles in Santiago del Estero Elections, Losing in All 26 Municipalities

The provincial government of Santiago del Estero, led by national senator Gerardo Zamora, achieved an unprecedented electoral victory on Sunday, August 2, in the recent history of the province, winning in all 26 districts where municipal authorities were elected - 25 mayorships and one municipal commission - consolidating an absolute territorial dominance that included a victory in La Banda, a city that had eluded them for over two decades. One of the most notable aspects of the day was the meager vote count for La Libertad Avanza, which drew criticism towards the party president Tomás Figueroa.

With nearly 66% of the votes at the provincial level and a turnout exceeding 64% of the electoral roll, the Civic Front for Santiago not only retained control of the capital - where Mario Benavente won 60.5% of the votes - but also achieved what seemed impossible for 23 years: winning the mayorship of La Banda, the second most important city in the province, with Llamil Abdala, who garnered over 51% of the votes.

The victory in La Banda was the most significant political event of the day. For a quarter of a century, this municipality had resisted Zamora's influence, first as a bastion of Peronism and later as a massista enclave under the leadership of Pablo Mirolo, a protégé of former Economy Minister Sergio Massa. The outgoing mayor Roger Nediani's break with the Renovation Front created a rift that the provincial government was able to exploit, as the Civic Front allied with the Justicialist Party in one of the two cities where they competed as a unified front, resulting in a resounding victory.

Abdala, the current Secretary of Industry for the province, easily surpassed Mirolo - who came in second with 12.5% - and Nediani, who failed to secure re-election with only 11.4%. "We must deepen this project of unity among the people of Santiago like never before," expressed Zamora from the La Banda bunker, where he chose to wait for the results, signaling the importance he placed on this district.

The Capital and the Message to Javier Milei

In the city of Santiago del Estero, Mario Benavente's victory - a computer engineer and until now the Secretary of Municipal Cabinet Coordination - was undisputed: 60.5% of the votes against 12.2% for La Libertad Avanza and 11% for Despierta Santiago. Zamora promised the capital residents that "they will have a good mayor" and concluded his speech with a phrase that resonated as a direct message to the Casa Rosada: "Santiago del Estero is not for sale, the homeland is not surrendered, and the Malvinas are Argentine."

Thank you very much to all the Santiago brothers who today once again supported this provincial political project of unity that is the Civic Front for Santiago!!!
A hug to all political spaces, leaders, and militants for so much... pic.twitter.com/AOuIRRV8vx --- Gerardo Zamora (@GZamoraSDE) August 3, 2026

Governor Elías Suárez, who won the governorship last year with nearly 75% of the votes, joined the celebrations and highlighted citizen support. "The people expressed themselves, expressed their will freely, to choose their representatives," stated the provincial leader, in a message that underscored the legitimacy of the result and support for Zamora's administration.

From National Peronism

The overwhelming result did not go unnoticed nationally as from Peronism, national deputy Máximo Kirchner congratulated the Civic Front on his Instagram account, joining the congratulations that Zamora received from various sectors.

The gesture is not minor: the relationship between Zamorism and Kirchnerism dates back to 2005, when Néstor Kirchner promoted the federal intervention that allowed Zamora to access the provincial government, and it has been maintained over the years with the support of Cristina Kirchner and the election of Claudia Ledesma Abdala - Zamora's wife - as governor in 2013.
The post by Máximo Kirchner on Instagram congratulating Gerardo Zamora on the victory.

Even the transfer of Alejandro Parnás was not enough

La Libertad Avanza suffered an electoral beating that was reflected in the numbers: only 12% of the votes at the provincial level and a meager legislative representation: only three councilors out of 194 seats at stake, two in the capital and one in Añatuya.

In the city of Santiago del Estero, the candidate Beatriz Yunes - a businesswoman in the art sector who had the support of national figures such as Iñaki Gutiérrez, Eugenia Rolón, Diego Santilli, and Martín Menem - came in second but 48 points behind the winner. In La Banda, where the space had concentrated much of its effort, the candidate Miguel Torres finished sixth with only 5% of the votes. In Las Termas de Río Hondo, another district where LLA expected to gain ground, their candidate finished last with 4.5%.

But perhaps the most significant aspect of the libertarian defeat in the capital was that even the incorporation of Alejandro Parnás was not enough to make the election competitive. The leader of radical origin, who in 2024 had shown closeness to the governor of Santa Fe Maximiliano Pullaro - whom he praised for his "territorial work" and his productive model during a meeting in Reconquista - had gone from being a candidate for governor for Despierta Santiago in 2025 to heading the list of councilors for La Libertad Avanza in the capital in 2026.

The transfer, far from adding votes to the libertarian space, ended up being testimonial because the list headed by Parnás only secured two seats in the City Council, while the mayoral candidate was nearly 50 points behind the winner. In less than a year, Parnás went from trying to contest the highest provincial position to seeking a municipal legislative seat in an election where his new space fell far short of expectations.

Fragmentation

Beyond the overwhelming nature of the ruling party, the numbers reveal that the opposition arrived at the elections very fragmented, a factor that greatly facilitated the comfortable victory of the Civic Front. In the provincial capital, the opposition vote was split between LLA -12.2%-, Despierta Santiago -11%- and the macrist Facundo Pérez Carletti, with the sum of the three main alternative forces barely reaching 35% of the total, far from the 60.6% that Benavente harvested.

In La Banda, the fragmentation was even more noticeable as Pablo Mirolo's Renovation Front secured 12.5%, Roger Nediani's Commitment and Unity Front obtained 11.4%, and La Libertad Avanza was relegated to sixth place with only 5%. Together, the opposition garnered almost half of the votes that Abdala received, but they were divided among multiple candidacies that detracted from each other instead of competing. At the provincial level, the picture was repeated: while the Civic Front monopolized 66% of the votes, La Libertad Avanza and Despierta Santiago were neck and neck for second place with only 8% and 7%, while the remaining spaces shared the remaining 19% across dozens of local lists.

The absence of a unified opposition alliance - or at least a second-round strategy that forced a concentration of votes - allowed zamorismo, with its intact territorial machinery and its functional alliance with Neder's Peronism, to sweep district after district without major obstacles.

As local analysts pointed out, the ruling party did not need to exceed 50% in all municipalities because in several cases, the sum of the Civic Front candidates and their Peronist allies surpassed 70 points, while the opposition diluted into single-digit figures.

¡LLAMIL ABDALA
MAYOR OF LA BANDA! THE TRIUMPH OF UNITY AND COMMITMENT TO THE PEOPLE
From the Civic Front headquarters, we moved to La Banda, where in a Belgrano square filled with militants and neighbors, we celebrated the victory at the polls with the mayor... pic.twitter.com/A9CDWohPSh
--- Carlos Silva Neder (@CSilvaNederSDE) August 3, 2026

Eyes on Tomás Figueroa

Internal criticisms did not take long to appear, all pointing to the same name: Tomás Figueroa, president of the provincial LLA and a close leader to the head of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem. Figueroa, who during the campaign had received messages of support from national senator Patricia Bullrich and Chief of Cabinet Diego Santilli, became the target of questioning due to an electoral strategy that failed "from start to finish," as one source described to Ámbito.

Figueroa's situation becomes even more complicated when reviewing his political past, as in 2019 he was the second-largest individual contributor to the presidential campaign of the Frente de Todos led by Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, with a contribution equivalent to almost U$S 40,000.

This background, combined with the lack of results, fuels criticism within a space that, despite advertising efforts and national support, failed to build a credible alternative in the Santiago territory. From Figueroa's circle, they attempted to downplay the defeat by stating that LLA had positioned itself as the second provincial force, but the argument is insufficient in light of the evidence that in most municipalities they did not compete, and where they did, they were relegated.

A Shielded Project

With this result, the Civic Front of Zamora has completed absolute control of the municipalities in the province, in addition to the provincial government and the ten seats that Santiago del Estero contributes to Congress. The alliance between Zamorist radicalism and the Peronism of José Emilio "Pichón" Neder once again demonstrated its solidity, as in several localities they competed with separate lists but all aligned under the same leadership. The election also left a national reading, as suggested from La Madre de Ciudades: Zamora, who is already being mentioned for a presidential formula in 2027, showcases a fortified territory where the Milei brand failed to penetrate.