1931 Argentine general election

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1931 Argentine general election
Flag of Argentina.svg
Presidential election
  1928 8 November 1931 1937  

376 members of the Electoral College
189 votes needed to win
Registered2,116,552
Turnout73.80%
  Agustin Pedro Justo en 1936 (cropped).jpg LisandroDeLaTorre.jpg
Nominee Agustín P. Justo Lisandro de la Torre
Party Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union Democratic Progressive Party
Alliance Concordance Civic Alliance
Running mate Nicolás Repetto
Electoral vote237124
States carried121 + CF
Popular vote864,394487,584
Percentage61.44%34.66%

Elecciones presidenciales de Argentina de 1931.svg
Most voted party by province.

President before election

José F. Uriburu
Nationalist Liberation Alliance

Elected President

Agustín P. Justo
National Democratic Party

Legislative election
  1930 8 November 1931 1934  

158 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
80 seats needed for a majority
Turnout73.81%
Party%Seats
Chamber of Deputies
Concordance 60.05%95
Civic Alliance 34.25%57
Entre Ríos Antipersonalist UCR 3.28%6
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Elecciones legislativas de Argentina de 1931 - Resultados por distrito.svg
Results by province

The Argentine general election of 1931 was held on 8 November.

Contents

Background

Concordance candidate Agustin Justo (left) and his benefactor, dictator Jose Felix Uriburu. Uriburu walking.jpg
Concordance candidate Agustín Justo (left) and his benefactor, dictator José Félix Uriburu.

Following months of protest triggered in part by the onset of the Great Depression, a quiet coup d'état deposed the aging Hipólito Yrigoyen in September 1930. His country's first leader elected via secret male universal suffrage, Yrigoyen had strained alliances within his own centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR) through frequent interventions against willful governors and had set business powerhouses such as Standard Oil against him through his support of YPF, the state oil concern founded in 1922. [1] Staging its first coup since 1861, the Argentine military, then dominated by conservative, rural interests, called on José Félix Uriburu, a retired general and member of the Supreme War Council, to assume the role of Provisional President. Uriburu, the nephew of former President José Evaristo Uriburu, had no taste for politics and was in ailing health. [2]

He nevertheless set down an ambitious agenda, entrusting his Interior Minister, Matías Sánchez Sorondo, to replace the 1912 Sáenz Peña Law (which provided for universal male suffrage and the secret ballot) with one promoting a single, ruling party not unlike the one that kept the landowner-oriented National Autonomist Party (PAN) in power from 1874 to 1916. Aligning themselves behind the relatively moderate National Democratic Party, conservatives were defeated in gubernatorial polls in the paramount Province of Buenos Aires in April 1931. The results not only raised hopes for the centrist, urban-oriented UCR, it also persuaded Uriburu that Sánchez Sorondo's "electoral reform" would not keep conservatives in power, in and of itself.

The UCR turned to Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear for leadership ahead of the November 1931 elections. The scion of one of Argentina's traditional landed families and President from 1922 to 1928, Alvear's alliance with Yrigoyen soured as he challenged the latter's personality cult (hence his creation of a splinter, "Antipersonalist" UCR). The seasoned Alvear, however, took care to assuage the still-popular Yrigoyen's objections by naming former Salta Province Governor Adolfo Güemes (a staunch Yrigoyen supporter) as his running mate. [3]

Facing a recovered and nearly-unified UCR, President Uriburu dispensed with his previous pledge to restore constitutional order and annulled the Buenos Aires Province elections. He also promoted the Argentine Civic Legion, an armed fascist organization entrusted to intimidate the opposition. [4] Alvear's establishment of a Renewal Junta helped lead to a violent July 20 clash with Uriburu's forces in Corrientes Province, which gave the President the pretext for ordering Alvear's deportation, a few days later. Deprived of their candidate, the UCR boycotted the 1931 election, though party committees in a number of provinces participated in the November polls. [2]

The support of UCR Senator Leopoldo Melo (the leader of the anti-Yrigoyen faction of the party) and Uriburu for retired General Agustín Justo as candidate resulted in the Concordance. This new, conservative alliance heeded Uriburu's sage advice during their nominating convention, sidestepping imposing landowners in favor of Justo, who had been President Alvear's War Minister in the 1920s. They picked former Córdoba Governor Julio Roca as his running mate; Roca, the son of the late PAN leader, Julio A. Roca, had led the Democratic Party of Córdoba. [2]

A National Democratic Party ballot. Justo-Roca-Boleta electoral 1931.jpg
A National Democratic Party ballot.

The Democratic Progressive Party (PDP), known for its anti-corruption platform, nominated Senator Lisandro de la Torre, who also earned the endorsement of the Socialist Party of Argentina, a party in search of leadership following the passing of Juan B. Justo, in 1928. The alliance alienated conservatives in the PDP, however, who instead endorsed the aging Francisco A. Barroetaveña, a former Senator who ran on a UCR ticket limited to his Entre Ríos Province. Barroetaveña, who helped found the UCR in 1890, broke with Yrigoyen during the 1920s and hoped to rally the exiled Alvear's supporters behind him.

Ultimately, voter intimidation and widespread irregularities helped give the National Democratic-led Concordance a sizable victory on election night. The electoral college, however, which counted the conservatives' ad hoc Lista Única (Unified List) separately, was far more closely divided: 135 for Justo, 124 for de la Torre, and 117 for the numerous UCR tickets who defied Alvear's boycott (including Barroetaveña's). As most of these splinter UCR tickets were led by conservative figures opposed to the muck-raking Senator de la Torre, their pledge of most of their 117 electors handed Justo the Presidency. [3]

Candidates

Results

President

Presidential
candidate
Vice Presidential
candidate
PartyPopular voteElectoral vote
Votes%Votes%
Agustín Pedro Justo Total Concordance 864,39461.4423763.03
National Democratic Party (PDN)508,27136.1315741.76
Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union (UCR-A)177,19312.59297.71
Independent Socialist Party (PSI)37,7882.6930.80
PDN - Pactist Liberal - Antipersonalist UCR28,8352.05123.19
Unified Radical Civic Union (UCR-U)28,3432.01112.93
Liberal Party of Corrientes (PLCo)27,1391.9361.60
Provincial Defence–White Flag (DP-BB)22,1951.5861.60
Blockist Radical Civic Union (UCR-B)20,9101.4971.86
Popular Party of Jujuy9,2460.6661.60
Antipersonalist UCR - Independent Socialist 2,4980.18
Liberal Party of San Juan1,9760.14
Lisandro de la Torre Nicolás Repetto Democratic Progressive - Socialist Alliance (Civic Alliance)487,58434.6612432.98
Francisco Barroetaveña José Nicolás Matienzo Independent Radical Civic Union41,4742.95153.99
Genaro GiacobiniHéctor GonzálezPublic Health Party4,5070.32
No candidatesNational Agrarian Union4,2230.30
Reform Party4,1630.30
Dissident Liberal Party of Córdoba5320.04
Total1,406,877100
Positive votes1,406,87790.07
Blank votes79,3335.08
Tally sheet differences75,8234.85
Total votes1,562,033100
Registered voters/turnout2,116,55273.80
Sources: [5] [6] [7]

Chamber of Deputies

PartyVotes %Seats
1932-1934
Seats
1932-1936
Total seats
Total Concordance 823,66260.05504595
National Democratic Party (PDN)479,08734.93273158
Independent Socialist Party (PSI)96,5447.046511
Santa Fe Radical Civic Union (UCR-SF)80,8225.89336
Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union (UCR-A)46,9053.4255
Unified Radical Civic Union29,9412.18224
Liberal Party of Corrientes (PLCo)28,5222.08235
Provincial Defence–White Flag (DP-BB)24,7971.81112
Blockist Radical Civic Union (UCR-B)20,3301.4822
Popular Party of Jujuy11,4140.8322
Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union - Independent Socialist 3,1070.23
Liberal Party of San Juan2,1930.16
Total Civic Alliance469,81834.25273057
Socialist Party (PS)360,81326.30202242
Democratic Progressive Party (PDP)99.6037.266814
Civic Alliance9.4020.69112
Entre Ríos Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union (UCR-A)44,9823.28246
Agrarian Party14,6701.07
Reform Party9,0980.66
Public Health Party5,4240.40
Dissident Democratic Party of San Luis2,1210.15
Labour Gathering Party (CO)1,0510.08
Republican Gathering8560.06
Total1,371,6821007979158
Positive votes1,371,68287.81
Invalid/blank votes190,46012.19
Total votes1,562,142100
Registered voters/turnout2,116,55273.81
Sources: [5] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Results by province

ProvinceConcordanceCivic AllianceOthers
Votes %SeatsVotes %SeatsVotes %Seats
Buenos Aires 229,24864.1928123,27234.52144,6021.29
Buenos Aires City 90,87433.1810171,54562.632211,4944.20
Catamarca 19,4441002
Córdoba 97,33380.341019,42116.0354,4003.63
Corrientes 54,66193.8273,5986.18
Entre Ríos 31,30335.18312,70414.2844,98250.556
Jujuy 11,41481.8822,52618.12
La Rioja 13,53589.7521,54610.25
Mendoza 29,06475.5659,40224.441
Salta 22,31685.6833,72914.32
San Juan 29,48987.6434,15912.36
San Luis 12,15469.8423,12817.9712,12112.19
Santa Fe 80,82243.43699,60353.52135,6683.05
Santiago del Estero 51,82386.3763,2415.404,9358.23
Tucumán 50,18280.77711,94419.23
Total823,66260.0596469,81834.255678,2025.706

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References

  1. Todo Argentina: Yrigoyen (in Spanish)
  2. 1 2 3 Todo Argentina: Uriburu (in Spanish)
  3. 1 2 Todo Argentina: Fraude Patriotico (in Spanish)
  4. Rock, David. Authoritarian Argentina. University of California Press, 1993.
  5. 1 2 Cantón, Darío (1968). Materiales para el estudio de la sociología política en la Argentina (PDF). Vol. Tomo I. Buenos Aires: Centro de Investigaciones Sociales - Torcuato di Tella Institute. p. 107.
  6. Historia Electoral Argentina (1912-2007) (PDF). Ministry of Interior - Subsecretaría de Asuntos Políticos y Electorales. December 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 September 2014.
  7. Las Fuerzas Armadas restituyen el imperio de la soberanía popular: Las elecciones generales de 1946 (PDF). Vol. Tomo I. Buenos Aires: Imprenta de la Cámara de Diputados. 1946. p. 464.
  8. "Con abrumador triunfo para la candidatura del General Justo terminó el escrutinio". El Orden. 12 December 1931.
  9. "En la provincia de Catamarca terminó el escrutinio con un abrumador triunfo para Justo". Diario Santa Fe. 17 November 1931.
  10. "Terminó el escrutinio en Córdoba, Santiago del Estero y Capital Federal". Diario Santa Fe. 2 December 1931.
  11. "Escrutinio en Corrientes". El Litoral. 20 November 1931.
  12. "En la provincia de Entre Ríos fue terminado hoy el escrutinio de los comicios". El Litoral. 28 November 1931.
  13. "Los antipersonalistas han ganado la elección en La Rioja, ayer". El Orden. 26 November 1931.
  14. "Las cifras oficiales de Mendoza". El Litoral. 29 November 1931.
  15. "Con el triunfo del Partido Demócrata Nacional terminó ayer el escrutinio en Salta". Diario Santa Fe. 29 November 1931.
  16. "La fórmula Justo-Matienzo se impuso ampliamente en la provincia de San Juan". Diario Santa Fe. 15 November 1931.
  17. "En San Luis, Mendoza, La Rioja y Sgo. del Estero prosiguen los escrutinios". El Litoral. 25 November 1931.
  18. "Elecciones de 1931". El Litoral. 3 March 1934.
  19. "Tucumán: Se llega al final de la tarea". El Orden. 20 November 1931.