Despite great debate and the defections of some Peronist legislators, the proposal passed its Congressional stages quickly and the date was successfully changed.

[2] The Government claimed it would allow politicians to leave behind campaigning priorities and focus on tackling the ongoing local effect of the international financial crisis.

Equally controversial was a decision by Front for Victory leader Néstor Kirchner (the current President's husband and predecessor) to advance stand-in candidates - prominent local lawmakers (notably Buenos Aires Province Governor Daniel Scioli, as well as 15 Greater Buenos Aires-area mayors) who, after the election, would be likely to cede their new seats to down-ticket names.

[7] The elections resulted in a setback for the governing, center-left Front for Victory and its allies, which lost their absolute majorities in both houses of Congress.

The Front for Victory had already lost 16 Lower House members and 4 Senators on the heels of the 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector over a proposed rise in export tariffs.