Voting in midterm elections began in Argentina on Sunday in balloting likely to confirm the beginning of the political end of President Cristina Kirchner.
More than 30 million voters were eligible to cast ballots and elect half the lower chamber of Congress and a third of the Senate.The president's popularity has hit record lows, polls show, and Kirchner may lose her majority in Congress.
Though the South American country is still one of the world's breadbaskets -- exporting massive amounts of soy, wheat and meat -- Kirchner's Government has presided over expanding market controls, and sky-high inflation.
Kirchner, the 60-year-old standard bearer of the populist Peronist movement will be barred from running for a third term in 2015, and many see the vote as the start of the race to replace her.