From the icy reaches of Patagonia to tropical jungles in the north, Argentines began voting on Sunday for a new president to rescue Latin America's third largest economy from a crisis that plunged millions of middle class Argentines into poverty.
Voters trickled in as polling stations opened this morning, with 85,000 police and military deployed across the country to ensure this 20-year-old democracy's most closely contested election goes smoothly.
Polls show a statistical dead heat between three candidates -- free market ex-President Carlos Menem, seeking a third term at 72, fellow Peronist and left-of-center Nestor Kirchner and economist Ricardo Lopez Murphy, an investor favorite.
The next president faces the extraordinarily difficult task of having to restructure $60 billion worth of defaulted debt held by furious creditors from Tokyo to Milan, and must also mend trampled fences with the International Monetary Fund.
Banks still demand long-promised compensation after being forced to shoulder much of the social cost of the crisis by converting their dollar loans into devalued pesos. Many operate from behind steel shutters after they were vandalized by depositors whose savings were frozen for more than a year.