[JURIST] Argentina on Sunday opened its first round of voting for the country’s new presidential election. The new president will replace current President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner [BBC profile] who is now serving her second term [BBC report] and thus constitutionally ineligible for reelection. In order to win, a candidate will need to either get 45% of the vote or at least 40% of the vote and a ten point lead over the second place candidate. Daniel Scioli, who has the support of the current president, is currently leading opinion polls.

The country’s current president has faced controversy over the last year. An Argentina judge in February dismissed [JURIST report] criminal allegations against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that had been brought by a prosecutor who accused her of conspiring to shield Iranian officials from responsibility for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires. Kirchner was accused [JURIST report] of the cover up in January. After the prosecutor’s death, Kirchner declared she is “sure” [JURIST report] that Nisman’s death was not a suicide as initially indicated. An appeals court in Argentina ruled in May that a controversial agreement between Argentina and Iran to investigate the 1994 bombing was unconstitutional [JURIST report]. The two nations signed [JURIST report] the agreement in January 2013, which permitted Argentine authorities to question the Iranian suspects under Interpol arrest warrants, but only in Tehran. In 2005 Argentina accepted [JURIST report] formal responsibility for its failure to discover who was behind the 1994 bombing.