By Sarah Marsh and Richard Lough
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli had a wide lead in Sunday's presidential election, TV exit polls showed, but it was not clear if he had enough votes to secure an outright win and avoid a run-off.
TV station C5N said Scioli had won "by a large margin."
To win outright in the first round, a candidate needs 45 percent of votes or 40 percent and a 10 percentage point margin over their nearest rival.
Scioli is backed by outgoing President Cristina Fernandez and draws support from poorer Argentineans who credit her and her late husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner with an expansive welfare system and hauling the economy out of a devastating 2001-2002 depression.
Pre-election polls showed that his main rival is Mauricio Macri, the conservative mayor of Buenos Aires, who has stronger support among the middle-class. Macri is also favoured by foreign investors who are interested in Argentina's vast energy and metal reserves but are deterred by stifling controls on the economy.
(Additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein, Maximiliano Rizzi, Juliana Castilla and Maximiliano Rizzi; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Kieran Murray and Christian Plumb)
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