Following the enactment of a law to that effect in 2012, voluntary suffrage was extended to voters age 16 and 17, which enfranchised an additional 4.5% of the population, or about 1.2 million people;[5] of this total, approximately 600,000 registered to vote.

[6] Argentine voters in 2013 also parted with the traditional election-day seal stamped on National Identity Documents (DNI) by election officials, receiving instead a ballot stub with a bar code and serial number.

[7] President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was reelected in 2011, and the Kirchnerist Front for Victory (FpV) rode her coattails in gubernatorial and congressional races alike.

The recession was shorter and shallower than much of the local media had predicted, however;[9] and while the FpV entered the 2013 campaign season with sounder footing on pocketbook issues,[10] they were dogged by ongoing speculation that its caucus sought a two-thirds majority in the Lower House with the goal of amending the Constitution to allow the president to seek a third term.

[13] The PASO primaries were held on Sunday, 11 August, amid high turnout consistent with recent past elections and estimated by Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo at over 70%.

His relationship with the Kirchners had been a difficult one, however, and though polling gave him better prospects running for Congress under the FpV party list than on a separate slate,[15] Massa ultimately opted to form his own Frente Renovador (Renewal Front) ticket with the support of the 'Group of 8' Buenos Aires Province Mayors and others, notably former Argentine Industrial Union president José Ignacio de Mendiguren (an ally of Kirchnerism).

[3] Córdoba Province, where Governor José Manuel de la Sota broke with the president after being elected with her endorsement, is where the acrimony between these Peronist factions was probably most acute.

[27][28] Cavallo, who ran as a conservative and lost much of his political base as economy minister during the 2001 crisis, failed to reach the requisite 1.5% threshold to advance to the 27 October general election.

[29] Santa Fe Province voted in the PASO election amid mourning for the 15 or more fatal victims claimed by the Rosario gas explosion on 6 August.

The government faces increasing popular discontent, and the vice-president Amado Boudou (currently acting as president while Fernández de Kirchner recuperates after surgery) is under investigation for the so-called Boudougate.