BUENOS AIRES : Menem Feels Poll Heat

Argentine President Carlos Menem, whose party changed the country’s constitution last year so he could seek reelection, faces the possibility of a runoff after Sunday’s first round of voting.

A surprising poll result shows Menem, first elected in 1989, leading with 41.6% of the vote while main rival Jose Bordon, a former member of Menem’s Peronist Party, holds 34.7%.

Bordon, a senator, has been gaining ground at Menem’s expense in the major cities. Polls show the 49-year-old legislator leading in the capital, Buenos Aires, and in Rosario, the country’s second-largest city.

Analysts had predicted that Menem, 64, would easily maintain a 10-point lead in the polls and win another four-year term in the first round, largely because of his success in rescuing the nation from hyper-inflation. However, while inflation has dipped to single digits annually, unemployment has doubled during Menem’s tenure to 13%.

Menem’s campaign has also been hurt by recent admissions of atrocities committed by the military during the country’s 1976-83 “dirty war” under military rule. Menem pardoned the commanders of the dictatorship in 1990.