BUENOS AIRES: President Cristina Kirchner celebrated a landslide re-election victory in Argentine elections Monday, on the back of booming economic growth and sympathy a year after the death of her husband.
"I'm the first woman to be re-elected president. I don't want anything more," the center-left politician said in an emotional speech in Buenos Aires, after partial results gave her more than 53 percent.
The victory, celebrated by thousands of blue and white flag-waving supporters in front of the pink presidential palace, gave Kirchner the strongest mandate for an Argentine president since the end of the 1976-1983 dictatorship.
Her closest rival, Hermes Binner, won 17 percent, according to the results from Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo, with 64 percent of votes counted.
"I'm impressed by the figures and infinitely grateful," Kirchner said. "If we'd spoken of these figures barely two years ago, they'd have thought we were mad!"
The 58-year-old incumbent has risen in the polls since losing a fierce battle with soya farmers over taxes in 2008, aided by high prices for farm exports in the vast nation of 40 million.
She pushed forward with popular social programs started by her husband when he took office in 2003, including for pensions and child benefit as well as subsidies for transport and utilities.
Nestor Kirchner had been expected to stand for another four-year term before he died.
"He's here more than ever," Kirchner said Sunday, also thanking a string of Latin American leaders, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, for their support.
Nestor Kirchner was credited with lifting the country out of its financial meltdown of 2001 by restructuring massive debts and promoting spending.
He cut off talks with the International Monetary Fund after Argentina defaulted on almost $100 billion in foreign debts.
Glamorous and known for her sharp tongue, Kirchner has shown a more consensual style, making efforts to improve relations with key sectors like industry and agriculture.
But experts said the key to her success lay in the improved state of the economy.
"The explanation of her victory is simple," sociologist Jorge Giacobbe told AFP. "Sixty percent of Argentines are doing well. And half of the 40 percent who are not doing well are Peronists."
She needed just 40 percent to win if her nearest rival was more than 10 points behind, or 45 percent for an outright win.
The difference between her and her main rival was "historic," according to analyst Rosendo Fraga, from the New Majority institute.
Socialist Binner also celebrated however, after a first victory for his political movement over Argentina's radical party.
Media reports said Kirchner had also won back control of the Congress, where 130 seats were at play and kept control of the senate, where 24 seats were being disputed.
Kirchnerism belongs to the diverse and powerful Peronist movement of three-time former president Juan Peron and his populist second wife Evita.
Many Argentines see Kirchner's policies as the safest bet for the economy amid uncertainty in Europe and the United States.
"I think it's the best we've got. Human beings have a right for basic help from the government, like pensions," said 63-year-old teacher Monica Bietti, after she voted in a Buenos Aires school.
"I don't think the other candidates would dare to stand up to the world over debts or anything else."
Kirchner's divided opponents failed to convince voters they could do more to reduce runaway inflation -- which independent analysts estimate at almost 25 percent per year, more than double the official figures.
Binner has warned that Argentina, which relies heavily on exports to Brazil and China, will soon feel the effects of the global crisis, as growth is expected to slow down next year.
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