Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner consistently led the opinion polls
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has claimed victory in Argentina's presidential elections.
Partial official results, based on two-thirds of ballots being counted, gave her 43.6% of the vote.
Her nearest rival, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio, has admitted defeat with 22.6% of the vote.
If confirmed by the full count, Mrs Kirchner will succeed her husband Nestor Kirchner and become Argentina's first elected female president.
"We've won by a wide margin," she told supporters in a speech at her campaign headquarters at a hotel in Buenos Aires.
As her husband, the outgoing president, stood at her side, she said she would build on his work.
"We have repositioned the country, fought poverty and unemployment, all these tragedies that have hit Argentines," she said, referring to the country's recovery from the 2001 economic crash.
Exit polls showed Ms Carrio, who ran on an anti-corruption platform, took one out of four votes nationwide and did well with middle and upper-class voters in urban areas.
Ex-Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna won 19% of the vote, partial results showed.
Mrs Kirchner needs more than 45% of the full vote, or 40% with a 10 point lead over the next nearest candidate, to win the presidency without facing a second round of voting.
The partial count gives her an apparently unbeatable lead, with double the votes of her rivals.
Mr Kirchner has governed for the past four years, but surprised the nation by deciding not to seek a fresh term.
Polling was extended by one hour in some parts of the country to 1900 local time (2200 GMT) to accommodate a late rush of voters.
Besides a new president, voters were choosing eight provincial governors, a third of the Senate and about half of the Chamber of Deputies.
Some 27 million people were eligible to vote.
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