ARGENTINA: Free Election

Lawyer Arturo Frondizi, 49, leader of the left-wing faction of the sprawling, middle-of-the-road Radical Party, won Argentina’s presidential election this week after the first truly free campaign the country had known in 30 years. With a growing five-to-three margin in the key districts, he apparently handed his opponent, moderate Radical Ricardo Balbin, a decisive licking.

For his victory, Frondizi owed a potentially embarrassing debt to ousted Dictator Juan Perón. In constituent assembly elections last July, Perón ordered his last-ditch followers to vote blank, and they piled up 2,000,000 void ballots. Two weeks ago Perón, now an exile in the Dominican Republic, changed tactics and passed the word to vote for Frondizi. The only apparent reason was that Frondizi had been outspoken in criticism of the provisional government that booted Peron out in 1955. But Perón’s move clearly changed the course of the campaign, in which the pro-government Balbin had been a slight favorite.

As Frondizi’s margin swelled, he kept a wary eye on the military leaders who had risked everything to overthrow Perón. With perhaps a faint quiver of the upper lip he announced: “I have no commitments to anyone, and will govern solely for 20,000,000 Argentines.”