Chilean presidential election, 1946

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Chilean presidential election, 1946

Flag of Chile.svg


  1942 Wednesday September 4, 1946 1952  
Turnout 75.93% Decrease2.svg5.4%

  Gabriel Gonzalez Videla (recortada).jpg ECruzCoke.jpg
Candidate Gabriel González Videla Eduardo Cruz-Coke
Party Radical Conservative
Alliance Democratic Alliance National Falange
Popular vote192,207142,441
Percentage40.2%29.81%
Confirmation13846

  FAlessandriR.jpg Bernardo Ibanez Aguila.jpg
Candidate Fernando Alessandri Bernardo Ibáñez
Party Liberal Socialist
Alliance
Popular vote131,02312,114
Percentage27.42%2.54%
Coat of arms of Chile.svg
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Presidential elections were held in Chile on September 4, 1946. [1] The result was a victory for Gabriel González Videla of the Radical Party, who received 40% of the public vote and 75% of the Congressional vote.

Chile republic in South America

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica, although all claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty.

Gabriel González Videla Chilean politician

Gabriel González Videla was a Chilean politician. He was a deputy and senator in the Chilean Congress and was President of Chile from 1946 to 1952. He also helped draft the current Chilean constitution.

Contents

Electoral system

The election was held using the absolute majority system, under which a candidate had to receive over 50% of the popular vote to be elected. If no candidate received over 50% of the vote, both houses of the National Congress would come together to vote on the two candidates who received the most votes. [2]

National Congress of Chile legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Chile

The National Congress of Chile is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Chile.

Candidates

Fernando Alessandri

The support of the Democratic Alliance to Gonzalez motivated the separation of a part of the Radical Party, opposite to the communist-radical alliance, which there shaped the Democratic Radical party directed by Julio Durán and Arturo Olavarría. This conglomerate raised Alfredo Duhalde's candidacy, supported also by the Authentic Socialist Party. Then, in one slightly confused situation, Duhalde and Arturo Alessandri stoop his respective candidacies giving step to the candidate Fernando Alessandri Rodríguez, standard-bearer of liberal, radical democratic and authentic Socialists of Marmaduke Grove.

Alfredo Duhalde President of Chile

Alfredo Duhalde Vásquez was a Chilean politician who served twice as provisional president in 1946.

Marmaduke Grove politician

Marmaduke Grove Vallejo, his name erroneously spelled Marmaduque Grobeh, was a Chilean Air Force officer, political figure and member of the Government Junta of the Socialist Republic of Chile in 1932.

Eduardo Cruz-Coke

The right-wing met in his own convention in July. Conservative, liberal and agrarian Labours Parties members came to the Convention with the following candidates:

Nevertheless none managed to triumph in the Convention (65% was needed and then 60% of the delegates to be elect) and this one was suspended after one week. Diverse meetings for the only candidate failed, and in this way Eduardo Cruz-Coke's candidacies remained elevated, supported for the conservatives and Arturo Alessandri, for liberal and agrarian Labour Parties members. Then he remained only Cruz-Coke supported by the conservatives, since liberal and agrarian Labours Parties members continued with Fernando Alessandri's candidacy, together with a sector of the radicalism (Democratic Radical party), after the resignations of Arturo Alessandri and the vice-president Alfredo Duhalde.

Arturo Alessandri Chilean politician and President

Arturo Fortunato Alessandri Palma, GCTE was a Chilean political figure and reformer, who served thrice as the President of Chile, first between 1920 and 1924, then for part of 1925, and finally from 1932 until 1938.

Fernando Alessandri politician

Fernando Alessandri Rodríguez was a Chilean political figure, candidate of the centre-right in Chile's 1946 presidential election. He was the son of Arturo Alessandri, who was president from 1920 to 1925 and again from 1932 to 1938, and brother of Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, who was president from 1958 to 1964.

Gabriel González Videla

Already in February 1946 the situation had been defined inside the Radical party (of the president Ríos) where there face Gabriel Gonzalez Videla and Arturo Olavarría, the latter the support of the "Duhaldist" faction. Nevertheless, before the voting this one sector abstains, leaving only Olavarría, who was widely defeated by his contender.

For your part, the Democratic Alliance, auccessor of the Popular Front, met in a convention on July 21 and decided to support Gonzalez, leaving of side the candidacy of the communist Elías Lafertte.

The Popular Front in Chile was an electoral and political left-wing coalition from 1937 to February 1941, during the Presidential Republic Era (1924–1973). It gathered together the Radical Party, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Democratic Party and the Radical Socialist Party, as well as organizations such as the Confederación de Trabajadores de Chile (CTCH) trade-union, the Mapuche movement which unified itself in the Frente Único Araucano, and the feminist Movimiento Pro-Emancipación de las Mujeres de Chile (MEMCh).

Bernardo Ibañez

The Socialist Party of Chile, opposite to such circumstances, there proposes his own candidate, Bernardo Ibáñez Aguila, though in the election are going to give his vote to Gonzalez Videla.

Socialist Party of Chile Chilean political party

The Socialist Party of Chile is a political party within the centre-left Nueva Mayoría. Its historic leader was President of Chile Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a coup d'état by General Pinochet in 1973. Twenty-seven years later, Ricardo Lagos Escobar represented the Socialist Party in the 1999 presidential elections. He won 48.0% in the first round of voting and was elected with 51.3% in the second round. In the legislative elections on 16 December 2001, as part of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, the party won 10 out of 117 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 5 out of 38 elected seats in the Senate. After the 2005 elections, the Party increased its seats to 15 and 8, respectively. In the 2009 elections, it retained 11 Congressional and 5 Senate seats.

Results

CandidatePartyPublic voteCongressional vote
Votes%Votes%
Gabriel González Videla Radical 192,20740.213875.0
Eduardo Cruz-Coke Conservative 142,44129.84625.0
Fernando Alessandri Liberal 131,02327.4
Bernardo Ibáñez Socialist 12,1142.5
Others160.0
Invalid/blank votes1,5091
Total479,310100185100
Registered voters/turnout631,25775.919296.4
Source: Nohlen, Chilean Electoral Database

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References

  1. Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p262 ISBN   978-0-19-928358-3
  2. Nohlen, p259