Election Sunday in Santiago del Estero: Gerardo Zamora Seeks to Consolidate Power Against a Fragmented Opposition

Santiago del Estero will experience an electoral day this Sunday, August 2, that will define the municipal political landscape of the province for the next four years. There will be 598,000 eligible voters in 25 of the 28 Santiago municipalities, with 1,734 polling stations distributed across 225 educational establishments.

As usual, all eyes are on the cities that concentrate 68% of the electorate: the capital, with 236,900 voters, and La Banda, with 95,400. The general scenario shows the Civic Front for Santiago, the force led by national senator and former governor Gerardo Zamora, contesting 24 of the 25 mayoralties at stake. Only three small municipalities (Clodomira, Beltrán, and Villa Atamisqui) are outside the contest.

Capital, the Purple Challenge

In the city of Santiago del Estero, the term of mayor Norma Fuentes ends, who belongs to the Zamorist coalition made up of various sectors of radicalism and the Justicialist Party. Here, the ruling party promotes Mario Benavente as the candidate to succeed her, with the explicit support of national senators Gerardo Zamora and José Emilio "Pichón" Neder.

The uncertainty in the capital is knowing what percentage the candidates from the fragmented opposition will achieve. On one side, Facundo Pérez Carletti heads the list of Despierta Santiago (a space linked to the PRO), while Natalia Neme represents the organic UCR, which has split off and deepened the opposition's dispersion. Competing for the Renovation Front is Marianella Lezama Hid. But the factor that most worries the ruling party is the advance of La Libertad Avanza (LLA), which presents Beatriz Yunes with its characteristic purple color.
The libertarian Iñaki Gutiérrez was the only third-line leader who physically supported the LLA campaign in Santiago del Estero and was present at the closing event, with a walk.

President Milei's space held a campaign closing with a strong presence on the streets, with a walk through the capital's center led by Yunes, councilman Alejandro Parnás, and national leaders Iñaki Gutiérrez and Eugenia Rolón.

Only Gutiérrez, the young LLA leader who once managed social media accounts for the president, approached Santiago to support Yunes, highlighting the limited involvement of national figures in the provincial campaign. The local organizer of LLA is Tomás Figueroa, a former Peronist who was parliamentary secretary of the Chamber of Deputies for less than a year.

La Banda: The Battle

On the other side of the Carretero Bridge, after crossing the Dulce River, the electoral fight promises to be more attractive. There, mayor Roger Nediani seeks re-election for the Commitment and Unity Front, a locally oriented force that broke with Sergio Massa at the national level and has opted not to have provincial or national leaderships, which worries the ruling party even more.

The Civic Front has made a strong bet in La Banda as Zamora and Neder present Llamil Abdala, the current Secretary of Industry of the Province, as their candidate, aiming to displace Nediani. A recent poll places Abdala at the forefront of voting intention with 32%, giving him a 12-point lead over Nediani, while Pablo Mirolo - the former mayor representing Sergio Massa's Renovation Front - stands at 12%. Mirolo, who hopes to regain the Bandeño territory for Massa's party, represents another faction of the opposition competing on his side.{#p-1785541138457-37768}

#ItIsNow Llamil Abdala Mayor #CivicFront #LaBanda pic.twitter.com/Um0Zts7sPw{#p-1785541734284-87057}
--- Gerardo Zamora (@GZamoraSDE) July 30, 2026

The dispersion is total because besides Nediani, Abdala, and Mirolo, Miguel Torres (La Libertad Avanza), Lorena Gladys Bazán (Despierta Santiago), Luciano Rodríguez (Somos Nosotros Somos Bandeños), Julio César Scabuzzo (Proyecto Sur), and Gustavo Miranda (Fuerza Vecinal) are also competing.{#p-1785541138457-87268}

Fragmented Opposition {#p-1785541138457-23160}

The great absentee in these elections is the opposition unity. In the capital, the UCR, PRO, Renovation Front, and La Libertad Avanza each compete on their own. In La Banda, the atomization is even more evident: nine candidates are vying for the mayoralty without any alliance that could group votes against the Civic Front.{#p-1785541138457-22498}

It is said from outside that national senator Gerardo Zamora has the province wired, and this seems to be understood by the main political leaders of the country, who have decided to intervene little or not at all to support their mayoral candidates in the municipal elections. Furthermore, the current governor Elías Miguel Suárez is rarely mentioned in the provincial power structure, as the scene is dominated by Zamora, who has participated in events to support his candidates, both in Santiago and La Banda.{#p-1785541138457-28153}

The lack of unity among the opposition - combined with the political machinery of the Civic Front and the omnipresent figure of Zamora - projects a scenario in which the ruling party would retain most of the mayoralties. In the capital, Benavente is clearly the favorite. In La Banda, Abdala leads the polls. And in the other 25 municipalities at stake, the Civic Front has its own candidates in almost all districts.{#p-1785541138457-6282}

On Sunday, Santiago del Estero will decide whether municipal power remains painted in Zamora's colors or if, for the first time in years, the opposition manages to break through the wall of the ruling party. For now, the numbers and the lack of unity indicate otherwise.{#p-1785541138457-67634}

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