Soccer boss favored as Buenos Aires votes for mayor

BUENOS AIRES, June 24 (Reuters) Residents of Argentina's capital voted today to choose a new mayor in a run-off vote expected to see a conservative millionaire soccer boss defeat a candidate heavily backed by President Nestor Kirchner.

The Buenos Aires mayoral vote could catapult a leading opposition figure into one of the country's key political posts, dealing a blow to the Argentine leader months ahead of this year's presidential election.

Polls show Mauricio Macri, a center-right congressman and president of Argentina's popular Boca Juniors soccer club, holding a double-digit lead over Kirchner's education minister, Daniel Filmus.

Macri won the first round of voting on June 3 with 46 percent, but fell short of the simple majority needed to avoid a second round. Filmus finished with 24 percent.

The mayor of Buenos Aires is one of the country's most powerful jobs and Kirchner has publicly waded into the contest, hoping to broaden his political base.

Analysts say a Macri victory could anoint him the leader of a fractured opposition struggling to gain ground on the highly popular leftist president in the Oct. 28 presidential race.

''The vote will surely breath some air into the opposition,'' wrote Eduardo van der Kooy, a political columnist at the Buenos Aires daily, Clarin.

Kirchner has dominated Argentine politics since taking office in 2003, consolidating his power as Argentines credit him with engineering the country's economic recovery.

Public opinion surveys show Kirchner and his wife, a senator, holding substantial leads in the presidential race, with either expected to win easily. Neither has announced they are running but Kirchner frequently hints his wife may run in his place.

Macri was widely seen as a potential candidate in the presidential election before he jumped into the mayor's race.

He has hinted it might be a first step toward a presidential candidacy in 2011.

Kirchner hand-picked Filmus to compete in the race in Buenos Aires, home to some 2.8 million Argentines and an independent-minded electorate that frequently votes against national trends.

Macri, 48, hails from one of the country's wealthiest -- and most controversial -- families. His father, business tycoon Franco Macri, is one of Argentina's richest men whose businesses flourished during the 1990s under former President Carlos Menem.

Kirchner, who blames Argentina's 2001-2002 economic crisis on heavy borrowing and unchecked public spending during the Menem years, has publicly warned a Macri victory could mark a return of Menem's policies.

But the Buenos Aires race has largely centered on local issues, including rising crime and the city's dilapidated public transportation system.

In the final days of the campaign, Macri got a public relations boon from his role as president of the Boca Juniors club -- where soccer great Diego Maradona once starred.

On Wednesday, Boca won Latin America's Copa Libertadores tournament -- the equivalent of Europe's Champions League championship.

REUTERS JT RN2239