1931 Argentine general election

1931 Argentine general election

Presidential election
←  1928 8 November 1931 1937  →
376 members of the Electoral College 189 votes needed to win
Registered	2,116,552
Turnout	73.80%
Nominee Agustín P. Justo Lisandro de la Torre Party UCRA Democratic Progressive Alliance Concordancia Civil Alliance  [ es ] Running mate Julio Roca / José Matienzo Nicolás Repetto Electoral vote 237 124 Popular vote 864,394 487,584 Percentage 61.44% 34.66%
Results by province
President before election José F. Uriburu ALN Elected President Agustín P. Justo PDN
Chamber of Deputies
←  1930 8 November 1931 1934  →
All 158 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 80 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	73.81%
Party Vote % Seats Chamber of Deputies Concordancia 60.05 95 Civil Alliance  [ es ] 34.25 57 Entre Ríos UCRA  [ es ] 3.28 6 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Results by province

General elections were held in Argentina 8 November 1931.

Background

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.

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

• Concordance (conservative): General Agustín Justo of Entre Ríos Province
• Socialist-Democratic Progressive alliance (reformist): Former Deputy Lisandro de la Torre of the city of Buenos Aires
• Radical Civic Union (unofficial, center-right ticket): Former Deputy Francisco A. Barroetaveña of Entre Ríos Province

• 
  Justo
• 
  de la Torre
• 
  Barroetaveña

Results

President

Candidate		Running mate	Party or alliance			Public vote		Electoral vote
						Votes	%	Votes	%
	Agustín Pedro Justo	Julio Argentino Pascual Roca	Concordancia		National Democratic Party	508,271	36.13	157	44.10
					Unified List	126,392	8.98	2	0.56
					PDN–Pactist Liberal–UCRA  [ es ]	28,835	2.05	12	3.37
					People's Party  [ es ]	9,246	0.66	6	1.69
				Total		672,744	47.82	197	55.34
	Lisandro de la Torre	Nicolás Repetto	Civil Alliance  [ es ] (PDP–PS)			487,584	34.66	124	34.83
	Agustín Pedro Justo	José Nicolás Matienzo	Concordancia		Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union  [ es ]	50,801	3.61	7	1.97
					Independent Socialist Party	37,788	2.69	3	0.84
					Unified Radical Civic Union  [ es ]	28,343	2.01	11	3.09
					Liberal Party of Corrientes	27,139	1.93	6	1.69
					Provincial Defence–White Flag  [ es ]	22,195	1.58	6	1.69
					Blockist Radical Civic Union  [ es ]	20,910	1.49	7	1.97
					UCRA  [ es ]–PSI	2,498	0.18
					Liberal Party of San Juan	1,976	0.14
				Total		191,650	13.62	40	11.24
	Francisco A. Barroetaveña	José Nicolás Matienzo	Independent Radical Civic Union			41,474	2.95	15	4.21
	Genaro Giacobini  [ es ]	Héctor González	Public Health Party  [ es ]			4,507	0.32
	No candidate	No candidate	National Agrarian Union			4,223	0.30
	No candidate	No candidate	Reform Party			4,163	0.30
	No candidate	No candidate	Dissident Liberal Party of Córdoba			532	0.04
Total						1,406,877	100.00	356	100.00
Valid votes						1,406,877	90.07
Invalid/blank votes						155,156	9.93
Total votes						1,562,033	100.00
Registered voters/turnout						2,116,552	73.80
Source: Cantón, [5] Minitry of the Interior, [6] Chamber of Deputies [7]

Chamber of Deputies

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats
						1932–34	1932–36	Total
	Concordancia		National Democratic Party	479,087	34.93	27	31	58
			Independent Socialist Party	96,544	7.04	6	5	11
			Santa Fe Radical Civic Union  [ es ]	80,822	5.89	3	3	6
			Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union  [ es ]	46,905	3.42	5	0	5
			Unified Radical Civic Union  [ es ]	29,941	2.18	2	2	4
			Liberal Party of Corrientes	28,522	2.08	2	3	5
			Provincial Defence–White Flag  [ es ]	24,797	1.81	1	1	2
			Blockist Radical Civic Union  [ es ]	20,330	1.48	2	0	2
			People's Party  [ es ]	11,414	0.83	2	0	2
			UCRA  [ es ]–PSI	3,107	0.23	0	0	0
			Liberal Party of San Juan	2,193	0.16	0	0	0
		Total		823,662	60.05	50	45	95
	Civic Alliance  [ es ]		Socialist Party	360,813	26.30	20	22	42
			Democratic Progressive Party	99,603	7.26	6	7	13
			Civic Alliance  [ es ]	9,402	0.69	1	1	2
		Total		469,818	34.25	27	30	57
	Entre Ríos Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union  [ es ]			44,982	3.28	2	4	6
	Agrarian Party			14,670	1.07	0	0	0
	Reform Party			9,098	0.66	0	0	0
	Public Health Party  [ es ]			5,424	0.40	0	0	0
	Dissident Democratic Party of San Luis  [ es ]			2,121	0.15	0	0	0
	Labour Gathering Party			1,051	0.08	0	0	0
	Republican Gathering			856	0.06	0	0	0
Total				1,371,682	100.00	79	79	158
Valid votes				1,371,682	87.81
Invalid/blank votes				190,460	12.19
Total votes				1,562,142	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				2,116,552	73.81
Source: Cantón, [5] El Orden, [8] [9] [10] Diario Santa Fe, [11] [12] [13] [14] El Litoral [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Results by province

Province	Concordance			Civic Alliance			Others
	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
Buenos Aires	229,248	64.19	28	123,272	34.52	14	4,602	1.29	—
Buenos Aires City	90,874	33.18	10	171,545	62.63	22	11,494	4.20	—
Catamarca	19,444	100	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
Córdoba	97,333	80.34	10	19,421	16.03	5	4,400	3.63	—
Corrientes	54,661	93.82	7	3,598	6.18	—	—	—	—
Entre Ríos	31,303	35.18	3	12,704	14.28	—	44,982	50.55	6
Jujuy	11,414	81.88	2	2,526	18.12	—	—	—	—
La Rioja	13,535	89.75	2	1,546	10.25	—	—	—	—
Mendoza	29,064	75.56	4	9,402	24.44	2	—	—	—
Salta	22,316	85.68	3	3,729	14.32	—	—	—	—
San Juan	29,489	87.64	3	4,159	12.36	—	—	—	—
San Luis	12,154	69.84	2	3,128	17.97	1	2,121	12.19	—
Santa Fe	80,822	43.43	6	99,603	53.52	13	5,668	3.05	—
Santiago del Estero	51,823	86.37	6	3,241	5.40	—	4,935	8.23	—
Tucumán	50,182	80.77	7	11,944	19.23	—	—	—	—
Total	823,662	60.05	95	469,818	34.25	57	78,202	5.70	6

References

1. Todo Argentina: Yrigoyen (in Spanish)
2. Todo Argentina: Uriburu (in Spanish)
3. Todo Argentina: Fraude Patriotico (in Spanish)
4. Rock, David. Authoritarian Argentina. University of California Press, 1993.
5. 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. "Los antipersonalistas han ganado la elección en La Rioja, ayer". El Orden. 26 November 1931.
10. "Tucumán: Se llega al final de la tarea". El Orden. 20 November 1931.
11. "En la provincia de Catamarca terminó el escrutinio con un abrumador triunfo para Justo". Diario Santa Fe. 17 November 1931.
12. "Terminó el escrutinio en Córdoba, Santiago del Estero y Capital Federal". Diario Santa Fe. 2 December 1931.
13. "Con el triunfo del Partido Demócrata Nacional terminó ayer el escrutinio en Salta". Diario Santa Fe. 29 November 1931.
14. "La fórmula Justo-Matienzo se impuso ampliamente en la provincia de San Juan". Diario Santa Fe. 15 November 1931.
15. "Escrutinio en Corrientes". El Litoral. 20 November 1931.
16. "En la provincia de Entre Ríos fue terminado hoy el escrutinio de los comicios". El Litoral. 28 November 1931.
17. "Las cifras oficiales de Mendoza". El Litoral. 29 November 1931.
18. "En San Luis, Mendoza, La Rioja y Sgo. del Estero prosiguen los escrutinios". El Litoral. 25 November 1931.
19. "Elecciones de 1931". El Litoral. 3 March 1934.