Argentina goes to the polls on Sunday with center-left Peronist candidate Alberto Fernandez expected to take the presidency from pro-business incumbent President Mauricio Macri, who has been stung by a tumbling economy and financial crises.

The election is essentially a two-way battle, with the rest of the candidates, led by former finance minister Roberto Lavagna, not expected to poll more than a combined 15 percent. 

In cities around the South American grain producer, polling stations will open at 0800 for the vote, with Fernandez holding a seemingly unassailable 20-point lead in most opinion polls. 

In the August primary, he obtained 45 percent of votes needed to secure an outright victory over Macri, sparking a sharp market crash.

Many say the election has a foregone conclusion. 

It would take a remarkable swing in the polls for Argentina's 34 million registered voters even to give the incumbent president a chance of a second run-off in November.

Macri has urged voters to keep faith with the country's current path, promising a better future at the end of the road.

"Don't let the difficulties make you doubt all the things we've achieved, about how we want to live. Don't let them abandon our dreams," Macri said Wednesday at a rally in the capital.

Whatever the president's arguments, Argentina is experiencing its worst economic crisis in nearly two decades.

The poverty rate has risen to more than 35 percent, inflation for the year to September was at almost 38 percent, while the peso has depreciated 70 percent since January 2018.

Macri's popularity has fallen off sharply over the last year in which Argentina has been in recession, and a currency crisis forced Macri to turn to the International Monetary Fund to secure a 57 billion U.S. dollars bail-out loan.

That, and the austerity measures Macri subsequently was forced to announce, proved highly unpopular in a country where the spending power of many ordinary Argentines has dropped dramatically.

(Input from agencies)