Omar Perotti's sector seized the initiative in Santa Fe's electoral debate on June 24, 2026, introducing its own bill before the governing Unidos coalition could settle on a common position. The new Constitution had changed representation criteria and required the Legislature to enact another electoral law, but divisions inside Maximiliano Pullaro's alliance created a space the former governor sought to occupy with a comprehensive proposal.
The bill was promoted by lawmakers aligned with Perotti and supported by Miguel Rabbia, part of Marcelo Lewandowski's organization, and Lucila De Ponti of the Evita Movement. Perotti's sector expected Pullaro to convene the parties institutionally to discuss the rules, although it had not received an invitation. Unidos had given itself until early July to resume talks, with the aim of debating and approving a law in August.
The main governing-coalition division concerned the relationship between executive and legislative candidacies. One Pullaro faction wanted the candidate for governor and the provincial deputies' list on the same ballot and sought to prevent independent legislative lists. Socialists and PRO leaders rejected that design. As an alternative, the coalition considered separate ballots in the primaries and linking governor with deputies, and mayor with councilors, only in the general election.
Perotti's initiative took another route. It proposed keeping the Single Paper Ballot with five separate papers for governor, senators, deputies, mayors and councilors and retained mandatory primaries. Each force would have to exceed 1.5% of the relevant electoral roll to reach the general election. The mechanism preserved each category's visual autonomy and prevented an executive candidacy from automatically pulling every legislative list.
For allocating seats under the D'Hondt system, the bill set a 3.5% threshold, below the 5% promoted by governing-coalition sectors and some Justicialist senators led by Armando Traferri. At the same time, it required complete candidacies: a force could not field deputies without candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, or councilors without a mayoral candidate when elections coincided. The combination eased access to seat allocation while barring incomplete electoral structures.
The most consequential clause targeted lawmakers who changed blocs after an election. Offices would be considered to belong to the party or alliance that nominated the candidate; if a legislator deliberately left that space, the lawmaker would lose the seat and be replaced by the next person on the list. The rule responded to specific precedents in the Legislature, including the departure of three deputies from Amalia Granata's bloc during the current term.
The bill completed the system with an Electoral Tribunal made up of judges chosen by lottery from the administrative-litigation jurisdiction, mandatory debates among gubernatorial candidates and mechanisms for election observers. The filing forced Unidos to debate an existing text while resolving its differences. The next step rested with Pullaro's call and the governing coalition's ability to agree before the August target, when the Legislature had to turn constitutional reform into applicable rules.
