Argentine presidential election, 1862

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Argentine general election, 1862

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←  1860 4 September 1862 1868  →
156 members of the Electoral College
79 votes needed to win

  Bartolome Mitre.jpg
Nominee Bartolomé Mitre
Party Liberal
Home state Buenos Aires
Running mate Marcos Paz
Electoral vote 133
States carried13
Percentage 100%
President before election

Bartolomé Mitre
(Acting President and Governor of Buenos Aires)
Liberal

Contents

Elected President

Bartolomé Mitre
Liberal

The Argentine presidential election of 1862 was held on 4 September to choose the first president of Argentina. Bartolomé Mitre was elected president.

Argentina federal republic in South America

Argentina, officially named the Argentine Republic, is a country located mostly in the southern half of South America. Sharing the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, the country is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi), Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the fourth largest in the Americas, and the largest Spanish-speaking nation. The sovereign state is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires, which is the federal capital of the nation as decided by Congress. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system. Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

Background

These elections were all indirectly decided in the electoral college, and not reflective of popular vote (whose turnout averaged 10% of male suffrage). The cosmetic nature of this electoral system, which became known locally as the voto cantado (the "vote song," for its predetermined script), resulted from a period of intermittent civil wars between those who favored a united Argentina with a strong central government (Unitarians) and Buenos Aires Province leaders who favored an independent nation of their own (Federalists). These conflicts had dominated local political life since 1820, and did not immediately subside with the enactment of the Argentine Constitution of 1853.

Electoral college subset of an electoral body, based on a territorial or non-territorial criteria

An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations, political parties, or entities, with each organization, political party or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way. The system can ignore the wishes of a general membership.

A central government is the government that holds absolute supremacy over a unitary state. Its equivalent in a federation is the federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels authorized or delegated to it by its federated states, though the adjective 'central' is sometimes also used to describe it.

Unitarian Party supporters of a strong central government in early 19th-centiry Argentina

Unitarianists or Unitarians were the proponents of the concept of a unitary state in Buenos Aires during the civil wars which shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in 1816. They were opposed to the Argentine Federalists, who wanted a federation of independent provinces.

The military guarantor of the Argentine Confederation, General Justo José de Urquiza, lost control over his appointed successor, Santiago Derqui, and this led Buenos Aires Governor Bartolomé Mitre to take up arms in defense of autonomy against what he saw as Derqui's reneging on their 1860 gentlemen's agreement. Victorious at the 1861 Battle of Pavón, Mitre obtained important concessions from the national army - notably the amendment of the Constitution to provide for indirect elections through an electoral college comprised - by design - somewhat disproportionately of electors from the nation's hinterland provinces. [1]

Argentine Confederation 1831–1861 republic in South America

The Argentine Confederation was the last predecessor state of modern Argentina; its name is still one of the official names of the country according to the Argentine Constitution, Article 35. It was the name of the country from 1831 to 1852, when the provinces were organized as a confederation without a head of state. The governor of Buenos Aires Province managed foreign relations during this time. Under his rule, the Argentine Confederation resisted attacks by Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, France and the UK, as well as other Argentine factions during the Argentine Civil Wars.

Justo José de Urquiza Argentine general and politician

Justo José de Urquiza y García was an Argentine general and politician. He was president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860.

Santiago Derqui President of Argentina

Santiago Rafael Luis Manuel José María Derqui Rodríguez was president of Argentina from March 5, 1860 to November 5, 1861. He was featured on the 10 Australes note, which is now obsolete.

A skilled negotiator, Mitre placated restive sentiment in Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos Provinces (where separatist sentiment was highest), and nominated Marcos Paz, a Federalist and former Mitre foe, as his running mate. Arranging an electoral college election on 4 September 1862, he and Paz received the body's unanimous support. [2]

Entre Ríos Province Province of Argentina

Entre Ríos is a central province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires (south), Corrientes (north) and Santa Fe (west), and Uruguay in the east.

Marcos Paz Argentine politician

Marcos Paz was Governor of Córdoba and Tucumán Provinces, an Argentine Senator, and Vice President of Argentina from October 12, 1862 until his death in 1868.

Results

Argentine Republic
Population 1,400,000
Voters 14,000
Turnout 1%
Presidential Candidates Party Electoral Votes
Bartolomé Mitre Liberal Party133
Total voters133
Did not vote 23
Total156
Vice Presidential Candidates Party Electoral Votes
Marcos Paz Liberal Party91
Manuel Taboada Unitarian 16
Tadeo Rojo — 6
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento — 5
Mariano Fragueiro Unitarian 5
Dalmacio Vélez Sarsfield Unitarian 3
Manuel Anselmo Ocampo — 3
Manuel Urdinarrain — 3
Valentín Alsina Unitarian 1
Total voters133
Did not vote 23
Total156

Results by Province

Province President Vice President
Mitre Paz Taboada Rojo Sarmiento Fragueiro Vélez Sarsfield Ocampo Urdinarrain Alsina
Buenos Aires 25 15 4 1 1 3 1
Catamarca Did not voteDid not vote
Córdoba 12 3 4 5
Corrientes 11 11
Entre Ríos 8 3 2 3
Jujuy 7 7
La Rioja 6 6
Mendoza 9 9
Salta 9 9 6
San Juan 8 2
San Luis 8 8
Santa Fe 8 8
Santiago del Estero 12 12
Tucumán 10 10
Total 133 91 16 6 5 5 3 3 3 1

Notes

  1. ↑ Historical Dictionary of Argentina. London: Scarecrow Press, 1978.
  2. ↑ Todo Argentina: 1862 (in Spanish)

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References

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José María Rosa, also known as Pepe Rosa, was an Argentine historian, one of the most notable of the Argentine nationalist revisionist historians.

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