Carlos Menem in the context of La Rioja Province, Argentina

Néstor Carlos Kirchner ([ˈnestoɾ ˈkaɾlos ˈkiɾʃneɾ] ; 25 February 1950 – 27 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007. A member of the Justicialist Party, he previously served as Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003, and mayor of Río Gallegos from 1987 to 1991. He later served as first gentleman of Argentina during the early tenure of his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first person to serve in this role. Ideologically, he identified himself as a Peronist and a progressive, with his political approach called Kirchnerism.

Born in Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Kirchner studied law at the National University of La Plata. He met and married Cristina Fernández at this time, returned with her to Río Gallegos at graduation, and opened a law firm. Commentators have criticized him for a lack of legal activism during the Dirty War, an issue he would involve himself in as president. Kirchner ran for mayor of Río Gallegos in 1987 and for governor of Santa Cruz in 1991. He was reelected governor in 1995 and 1999 due to an amendment of the provincial constitution. Kirchner sided with Buenos Aires provincial governor Eduardo Duhalde against President Carlos Menem.

Eduardo Alberto Duhalde (Spanish pronunciation: [eˈðwaɾðo alˈβeɾto ˈðwalde] ; born 5 October 1941) is an Argentine former Peronist politician who served as the interim President of Argentina from January 2002 to May 2003. He also served as Vice President and Governor of Buenos Aires in the 1990s.

Born in Lomas de Zamora, he was elected for the local legislature and appointed intendente (mayor) in 1973. He was deposed during the 1976 Argentine coup d'état, and elected again when democracy was restored in 1983. He was elected vice-president of Argentina in 1989, under President Carlos Menem. Duhalde resigned as vice president and was elected Governor of Buenos Aires Province in 1991, and re-elected in 1995.

In Argentina, presidential elections are conducted under the ballotage system. This system was added by the 1994 amendment to the Constitution of Argentina, as part of the negotiations between former president Raúl Alfonsín and president Carlos Menem.

Most countries with a two-round system require a candidate to win at least 50 percent of the vote to win the presidency in a single round. In these cases, if no candidate reaches that threshold, a runoff is held between the top two candidates in the first round. In Argentina a candidate can win a first-round victory with at least over 45 percent of the vote, or with at least 40 percent of the vote and at least more than 10 percentage points more than the runner-up. Lower-level Argentine districts, such as the city of Buenos Aires, use the conventional two-round voting system.

General elections were held in Argentina on 27 April 2003. Turnout was 78.2%. No one presidential candidate gained enough votes to win outright, but the scheduled runoff was cancelled when former president and first-round winner Carlos Menem pulled out just 4 days before the planned runoff on 18 May, handing the presidency to runner-up, Santa Cruz Province Governor Néstor Kirchner of the Front for Victory. Legislative elections were held on 12 dates, 27 April, 24 August, 31 August, 7 September, 14 September, 28 September, 5 October, 19 October, 26 October, 9 November, 16 November and 23 November. As of 2023, this marked the last time that both the president-elect and vice president-elect ticket were both men.

The privatization of water and sanitation services in Argentina between 1991 and 1999 under the government of Carlos Menem was part of one of the world's largest privatization programs. Water and sanitation concessions with the private sector were signed in 28% of the country's municipalities, covering 60% of the population.

The highest profile concession was signed in 1993 with a consortium led by the French firm Suez for the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires. After the 2001 economic crisis, under the government of Néstor Kirchner, many concessions were renegotiated. Some were even terminated, and the responsibility for service provision was reverted to public entities, as it was the case in Buenos Aires where the newly created public enterprise Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos took over the responsibility for service provision in 2006.