Javier Milei becomes Argentina's new president

Far-right libertarian outsider Javier Milei has won Argentina's presidential run-off poll on Sunday, according to provisional results. Milei's rival, economy minister Sergio Massa, called him to concede.

With almost 90% of votes counted, Mr Milei had nearly 56% of the vote compared with 44% for Mr Massa.

In his victory speech to supporters in Buenos Aires, Mr Milei said: "Today begins the reconstruction of Argentina. Today begins the end of Argentina's decline. Argentina will return to its place in the world that it should never have lost. We are going to work shoulder-to-shoulder with all nations of the free world, to help build a better world."

In a country where annual inflation is now over 140% and two in five people live in poverty, Javier Milei’s win proves that Argentines are fed up with traditional politics and economic disaster.

According to Argentine rules, to be elected president, a candidate must receive more than 45 percent of the total vote and win by at least 10 percent of the vote over the second-place candidate.

On October 22, no candidate earned the required number of votes in the first round of presidential elections in Argentina. Masa got 36.7 percent of the votes in the first round of elections while Mille got 30 percent. As a result, the election was held in the second phase.