No president for Argentina yet

Last-minute political wrangling delayed the Argentine Congress from appointing an interim president last night as legislators argued over how long a caretaker should remain in office and when to call new elections.

The political impasse came shortly before Congress was to name Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, a provincial governor, to fill the office vacated on Thursday by Fernando de la Rua.

De la Rua resigned as President following widespread looting and rioting which resulted in 26 deaths and 200 injuries.

Rodriguez Saa was chosen unanimously on Friday by his Peronist Party to take over from Senate leader Ramon Puerta, who was serving as acting president while congressional leaders sought a replacement.

But Rodriguez Saa had enough votes and his appointment as provisional president appeared near certain.

Late last night, three hours later than scheduled, Congress began a debate that was still going on near dawn today.

Legislators were negotiating over the length of Rodriguez Saa’s term and an election date, and were expected to vote to name him as head of the caretaker government.

They set a deadline of midday today for filling the post.

A spokesman for acting president Puerta said officials hoped to swear in the new provisional president at 11.30am (Irish time).

Rodriguez Saa is expected to serve in the job - which many in his own Peronist party spurned - for at least 60 days, until new elections tentatively scheduled for March 3.

The leader elected then will finish out the two years of de la Rua’s term.

His appointment restores Argentina’s largest party, the Peronists, as the country’s dominant political force after the worse unrest since the late 1980s, when another financial crisis gripped this South American country of 36 million people.

Rodriguez Saa’s main role will be to confront a four-year recession which has pushed unemployment above 18% and has the country on the brink of defaulting on its 132 billion dollar public debt.

He has been governor of San Luis province in western Argentina the past 18 years, and is known for colourful rhetoric and a populist touch, an image far different from de la Rua’s solemn, technocratic style.

But it is Rodriguez Saa’s record in San Luis that perhaps will be most inspiring to Argentines, who grew increasingly angry over the belt-tightening policies enacted by De la Rua.

Rodriguez Saa transformed his province by bringing in modern industry to replace faltering mines, putting in reliable water systems and highways and building 30,000 houses for the poor.

With a low unemployment rate and reputation for good state schools, San Luis has become a magnet, growing in population from 220,000 in the 1980s to 350,000 today.

He once said there are two types of politicians: optimists like Franklin D Roosevelt and himself, and pessimists like de la Rua.

‘‘We are governed by a generation of old-timers,’’ the newspaper Clarin yesterday quoted him as saying.

‘‘Argentina’s next president should be under 40, because this generation is ruined.’’

Rodriguez Saa told the television network Todo Noticias: ‘‘I will work with all my might on behalf of my country. I am going to work hard and with honesty.’’

He was expected to outline the economic program after he assumed office.

He reportedly has suggested Argentina will have to declare a moratorium on repaying its debts and vowed to try to keep a key economic law pegging the Argentine peso to the dollar.