Argentina's centre-leftist president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been re-elected in a landslide victory.
With votes in from 96% of polling stations, Ms Fernandez de Kirchner had almost 54% of the vote with a massive lead of 36 percentage points over her nearest rival, socialist candidate Hermes Binner.
No Argentine leader has won such a big share of the vote since General Juan Domingo Peron was elected for the third time with 62% in 1973.
The result marks a dramatic change of fortunes for a leader who some critics once said might have to leave power early as angry protests by farmers and middle-class voters hurt her approval ratings.
"If any one of us had said this was possible two years ago, they would have told us we were crazy," Ms Fernandez de Kirchner, 58, told thousands of supporters who packed a downtown square.
"There's a lot left to do, but if anyone had seen this country before 2003, they'd realize how much progress we've made," Ms Fernandez de Kirchner said in a speech laden with references to her late husband and presidential predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, who governed from 2003 to 2007.
Despite double-digit inflation and other signs of strain as global conditions worsen, Argentina's economy is growing at about 8% a year and the country has regained some of its glory as the "breadbasket of the world" as grains shipments rise. Unemployment is at a 20-year low.
Two years ago, voters punished Ms Fernandez de Kirchner confrontational handling of the farm conflict by voting in opposition lawmakers in a mid-term election, but analysts said yesterday's results would help her regain a narrow working majority in Congress.
"They've done good things and bad things ... but what matters is that for the first time there's a plan for the country that involves all Argentines of all classes," said Malena Juanatey, 25, a film director, who joined thousands of supporters in downtown Buenos Aires.
But Ms Fernandez de Kirchner's easy re-election belies fierce opposition to her combative, heavy-handed style - typical of the Peronist party that has dominated Argentine politics for decades.
A recent crackdown on economists whose inflation estimates double the official rate of a discredited state statistics agency is typical of Ms Fernandez de Kirchner's controversial methods, who some critics say resemble those of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
In 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis, Ms Fernandez de Kirchner stunned financial markets by nationalising private pensions.
A year later, she fired the head of the central bank when he refused to hand over foreign reserves to pay debt.
Such measures, coupled with high inflation and lax monetary and fiscal policy are viewed dimly on Wall Street, where economists say Latin America's third-biggest economy could be heading for a hard landing.
Ms Fernandez de Kirchner has outlined few concrete policy proposals, vowing only to "deepen the model."
