By IANS
Buenos Aires : The Argentine government has confirmed that first lady and Senator Cristina Fernandez will contest in the October presidential election, Spanish news agency EFE said Tuesday.
Fernandez (54) will begin her campaign with a rally on July 19 in hometown La Plata, said Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez.
Over the weekend, several newspapers reported that the senator would contest on the governing party's ticket in the Oct 28 presidential election, following months of speculation over whether she or her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, would be the candidate.
The president, his cabinet ministers, and most of the provincial governors and many legislators will attend the rally in La Plata.
Kirchner took office in May 2003 as standard-bearer of the Front for Victory, which is a faction of the Peronist Party, and will conclude his term on Dec 10.
Recent polls indicated that Kirchner would win re-election with more than 50 percent of the vote, while Fernandez – though she scores 10 percentage points lower – would also win the presidential balloting by a wide margin.
Kirchner was the first Argentine president to hail from the vast, sparsely populated region of Patagonia.
He first entered the youth wing of the Peronist Party in the 1970s as a student at the University of La Plata, where he earned a law degree in 1976 and met Fernandez.
Blunt, combative and accused of an authoritarian style of functioning, Kirchner has presided over strong economic growth after Argentina's disastrous 1998-2002 slump, though he has also had to cope with a resurgence of inflation.
Senator Fernandez's extensive high-profile foreign travel in recent months would appear to indicate that Kirchner and his political team were seeking to lay the groundwork for a presidential bid by the first lady.