Argentina emerged from a dizzying political roller-coaster ride yesterday when the former president Carlos Menem finally confirmed that he was pulling out of the presidential run off on Sunday. He leaves the presidency to Nestor Kirchner, a fellow Peronist who lost narrowly to Mr Menem in the first electoral round last month.
"I won in the first round, and now I'm leaving," Mr Menem said from his native province of La Rioja. With his resigna tion, Sunday's election will be scrapped, and his rival will assume office on May 25.
"Menem has shown his last face, the face of a coward," an exultant Mr Kirchner told supporters in central Buenos Aires, the capital. He blamed Mr Menem and the big business that supported his free-market economic policies during the 1990s for Argentina's recent economic collapse.
"First he stole the right to work, then the right to eat, and now he has come for our last right, the right to vote," said Mr Kirchner, angered that Mr Menem's pull-out had denied him the chance to achieve the 63% victory in the run off that the opinion polls predicted.
He said the withdrawal was an attempt by big business, which had "devastated" the country under Mr Menem's corrupt 10-year presidency, to "de-legitimise" the incoming administration by preventing it from winning the popular vote. Those interests wished for "the continuation of the economic policies of the 1990s", based on a strict adherence to IMF guidelines.
Mr Kirchner vowed that he would not be held hostage by big business, and promised not to abandon his convictions in the name of pragmatism.
Analysts fear that the cancelled run off could turn Mr Kirchner into a dead-duck, acceding to office with only 22% of the vote won, against Mr Menem's 24%.
Ricardo Lopez Murphy, a free-market economist who came third in April, expressed concerns that the resignation could endanger government stability. "The damage is already done," he said, labelling this week's electoral fracas as another "degrading milestone" in Argentina's political chaos all down to feuding Peronists.
The runoff between two Per onist candidates came after a divided party obtained permission from Argentina's courts to field three different candidates in the elections.
Mr Menem had kept the country on tenterhooks for two days, refusing to sign his resignation from the race even after his campaign staff had announced it to the press.
"Nobody Announces Anything", read the banner title on television Channel 13 yesterday, just hours before Mr Menem gave up.
Despite attempts to differentiate himself from Mr Menem, some analysts speculate that Mr Kirchner could prove prone to the same kind of questionable political ethics that marred Mr Menem's reign.
In his native Santa Cruz, a sprawling oil-rich province in southern Argentina, half the size of France with only 100,000 inhabitants, Mr Kirchner is seen as both an efficient administrator and a no-nonsense politician.
Governor for the last 12 years, he is often criticised for having stacked the provincial supreme court with acolytes and for having amended the provincial constitution to permit his own re-election, as well as preventing investigation into alleged corruption.
A descendant of 19th century Swiss immigrants, Mr Kirchner is credited with presiding over the lowest unemployment and infant mortality rate in Argentina.
During the Menem years, Mr Kirchner opened accounts in Switzerland and Luxembourg to deposit the earnings from Santa Cruz's oil deposits, a decision which stood the province in good stead when Argentina's banking system collapsed one year ago.