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Daniel Scioli is leading exit polls in Argentina’s election, but it is not clear if the vote will go into a runoff.

The center-left candidate was handpicked by two-term President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.

The head of the campaign led by Daniel Scioli’s main challenger, center-right Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri, says the election is heading for a second round.

A run-off would be held on November 22.

Argentina’s C5N television network said Daniel Scioli had won by “a large margin”.

To win outright, a candidate needs 45% of the vote or a minimum of 40% as well as a 10-point lead over the nearest rival.

Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires province, is a former world power boating champion who lost his right arm in a race in 1989.

Photo Getty Images

Photo Getty Images

Last week, he pledged tax cuts for workers earning under a certain income, a move expected to affect half a million people.

Daniel Scioli has also vowed to bring down Argentina’s inflation to single digits in less than four years and promises to introduce policy changes to invigorate the economy.

Another candidate, Sergio Massa, a former ally of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is polling behind Mauricio Macri. There are three other names on the ballot paper, with 32 million people eligible to vote.

Long queues formed outside polling stations from the early hours on October 25.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who stands down after eight years in power, says she leaves Argentines a better country.

“We are voting today in a completely normal country,” she said after casting her vote in the Patagonian town of Rio Gallegos.

In previous decades, Argentines always went to the polls “in the middle of a serious crisis,” Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner added.

She said achieving stability and leaving Argentines “a normal country” was the promise made by her late husband, Neston Kirchner, when he took office in 2003.

Nestor Kirchner died in 2010, three years after handing over the presidency to his wife.

Whoever wins Argentina’s presidency faces significant economic challenges.

While Argentina gained strength after a financial crisis in 2002, its economy, the third-largest in Latin America, has slowed in recent years, with GDP growing by only 0.5% in 2014.

Argentina is voting to choose the country’s next president in a general election that ends 12 years of rule under the Kirchners.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has served two consecutive terms and, under Argentina’s constitution, cannot run again.

Cristina Fernandez’s hand-picked successor, left-winger Daniel Scioli, is leading polls.

However, Daniel Scioli he is expected to face stiff competition from Mauricio Macri, the centre-right mayor of Buenos Aires.

Another candidate, Sergio Massa, a former Kirchner ally, is polling behind Mauricio Macri, while there are three other names on the ballot paper.

Today is the first round of voting – if no candidate gets more than 45% of the vote, or gets a minimum of 40% as well as a 10-point lead, there will be a run-off on November 22.

Whoever wins the presidency faces significant economic challenges.

Photo AP

Photo AP

While Argentina gained strength after a financial crisis in 2002, its economy, the third largest in Latin America, has slowed down in recent years, with GDP growing by only 0.5% in 2014.

The government is also locked in a battle against American hedge funds who disagree with how is wants to restructure $100 billion of debt on which it defaulted in 2001.

While the companies successfully sued Argentina for repayment, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner refused to pay.

She succeeded her husband Nestor Kirchner as president. He died in 2010, three years after handing over the presidency to his wife.

Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires province, is a former world powerboating champion who lost his right arm in a boat race in 1989.

Last week, he pledged tax cuts for middle-class workers earning under a certain income, a move expected to affect half a million people.

Daniel Scioli has also vowed to bring down Argentina’s inflation to single digits in less than four years and promises to introduce policy changes to invigorate the economy.

Like Daniel Scioli, Mauricio Macri is married to a former model. He is a former president of Boca Juniors, Argentina’s most successful soccer club.

While Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has sought to press Argentina’s claims for the disputed UK territory of the Falkland Islands, Daniel Scioli says he would not appoint a Falklands minister, and would seek closer ties with London.