Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has made an emotional farewell speech to supporters in the capital, Buenos Aires.
The outgoing president urged people to take to the streets if they feel betrayed by the new center-right government.
Conservative Mauricio Macri, who won a run-off election last month, is due to be sworn in as president later.
Mauricio Macri inherits problems including high inflation and a low level of foreign currency reserves.
He has promised a new era of change and reconciliation.
Addressing tens of thousands of cheering supporters outside the La Casa Rosa presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner defended her record.
“We believe in what we have achieved so we need to have a positive attitude to ensure that these things will not be destroyed,” she said.
“When you feel that those who you trusted and voted for have betrayed you, take up your flags,” she added.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is to skip today’s swearing-in after the two became embroiled in a row over the ceremony’s location.
It will be the first time since the end of Argentina’s military dictatorship in 1983 that a president has not attended the inauguration of a successor.
Mauricio Macri sought a court injunction affirming that Cristina Fernandez’s term ended at midnight on December 9.
During her speech, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchener joked: “I can’t talk much because after midnight I’ll turn into a pumpkin.”
Power will now be transferred to the new president by Senate Speaker Federico Pinedo, who is acting act as temporary head of state for 12 hours.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her late husband, Nestor Kirchner, held power in Argentina for 12 years.
She is revered by some Argentines for expanding welfare benefits, nationalizing some companies and introducing new civil rights such as gay marriage.
However, critics say she created a culture of handouts and clogged Latin America’s third-largest economy with interventionist policies.
Mauricio Macri – the outgoing mayor of Buenos Aires and a former president of football club Boca Juniors – defeated Cristina Fernandez’s preferred candidate Daniel Scioli by 51.4% to 48.6% in a run-off vote last month.
He is the first center-right leader to come to power since Argentina returned to democracy.
Mauricio Macri has not detailed his economic policies, but said that he will need to implement swift and radical changes in order to win back market confidence.
However, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s party still holds the most seats in the legislature and could make it hard for him to implement big changes.
Argentina’s opposition candidate Mauricio Macri has won the presidential election runoff in, exit polls suggest.
Polls by taken by TV stations shortly after voting closed indicated Mauricio Macri, 56, won, without giving a breakdown.
Mauricio Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, was up against Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires province.
Loud cheers erupted at Mauricio Macri’s campaign headquarters at the news, Reuters reported.
Party insiders claimed a five- to eight-percentage-point lead.
If the result is confirmed, it will be the first time in more than a decade that Argentina’s center-right opposition has wrested the presidency from the center-left Peronists.
Photo Getty Images
A spokesman for DanielScioli said they would wait for official figures to come in before commenting.
Neither candidate managed to win the first round of voting in October outright, forcing a runoff – the first in the country’s history.
DanielScioli was marginally ahead in the first round, with 36.7% to 34.5%, but has lost ground to his rival in the month since.
Mauricio Macri, the leader of the Cambiemos (Let’s Change) coalition, went into today’s vote with a comfortable lead in opinion polls.
He campaigned on pledges to bring new investment into the ailing economy, tackle crime and fight corruption.
The son of one of Argentina’s richest men, Mauricio Macri had a long career in business before entering politics.
A close ally of current President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Daniel Scioli had been expected to win by a greater margin in October.
Daniel Scioli is leading exit polls in Argentina’s election, but it is not clear if the vote will go into a runoff.
The center-left candidate was handpicked by two-term President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.
The head of the campaign led by Daniel Scioli’s main challenger, center-right Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri, says the election is heading for a second round.
A run-off would be held on November 22.
Argentina’s C5N television network said Daniel Scioli had won by “a large margin”.
To win outright, a candidate needs 45% of the vote or a minimum of 40% as well as a 10-point lead over the nearest rival.
Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires province, is a former world power boating champion who lost his right arm in a race in 1989.
Photo Getty Images
Last week, he pledged tax cuts for workers earning under a certain income, a move expected to affect half a million people.
Daniel Scioli has also vowed to bring down Argentina’s inflation to single digits in less than four years and promises to introduce policy changes to invigorate the economy.
Another candidate, Sergio Massa, a former ally of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is polling behind Mauricio Macri. There are three other names on the ballot paper, with 32 million people eligible to vote.
Long queues formed outside polling stations from the early hours on October 25.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who stands down after eight years in power, says she leaves Argentines a better country.
“We are voting today in a completely normal country,” she said after casting her vote in the Patagonian town of Rio Gallegos.
In previous decades, Argentines always went to the polls “in the middle of a serious crisis,” Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner added.
She said achieving stability and leaving Argentines “a normal country” was the promise made by her late husband, Neston Kirchner, when he took office in 2003.
Nestor Kirchner died in 2010, three years after handing over the presidency to his wife.
While Argentina gained strength after a financial crisis in 2002, its economy, the third-largest in Latin America, has slowed in recent years, with GDP growing by only 0.5% in 2014.
Argentina is voting to choose the country’s next president in a general election that ends 12 years of rule under the Kirchners.
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has served two consecutive terms and, under Argentina’s constitution, cannot run again.
Cristina Fernandez’s hand-picked successor, left-winger Daniel Scioli, is leading polls.
However, Daniel Scioli he is expected to face stiff competition from Mauricio Macri, the centre-right mayor of Buenos Aires.
Another candidate, Sergio Massa, a former Kirchner ally, is polling behind Mauricio Macri, while there are three other names on the ballot paper.
Today is the first round of voting – if no candidate gets more than 45% of the vote, or gets a minimum of 40% as well as a 10-point lead, there will be a run-off on November 22.
Whoever wins the presidency faces significant economic challenges.
Photo AP
While Argentina gained strength after a financial crisis in 2002, its economy, the third largest in Latin America, has slowed down in recent years, with GDP growing by only 0.5% in 2014.
The government is also locked in a battle against American hedge funds who disagree with how is wants to restructure $100 billion of debt on which it defaulted in 2001.
While the companies successfully sued Argentina for repayment, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner refused to pay.
She succeeded her husband Nestor Kirchner as president. He died in 2010, three years after handing over the presidency to his wife.
Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires province, is a former world powerboating champion who lost his right arm in a boat race in 1989.
Last week, he pledged tax cuts for middle-class workers earning under a certain income, a move expected to affect half a million people.
Daniel Scioli has also vowed to bring down Argentina’s inflation to single digits in less than four years and promises to introduce policy changes to invigorate the economy.
Like Daniel Scioli, Mauricio Macri is married to a former model. He is a former president of Boca Juniors, Argentina’s most successful soccer club.
While Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has sought to press Argentina’s claims for the disputed UK territory of the Falkland Islands, Daniel Scioli says he would not appoint a Falklands minister, and would seek closer ties with London.
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