Argentine presidential election, 1922
Encyclopedia
The Argentine general election of 1922 was held on 2 April. With a turnout of 55.2%, it produced the following official results:
aAbstentions.
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
Notes: a) seats left vacant.
Argentine Senate
(*): Seat left vacant until April 1923 or later.
's presidency, the first elected via the universal ballot (though without women), was marked by great contradictions. One of the founders in 1891 of Argentina's first successful pluralist party, the Radical Civic Union
(UCR), Yrigoyen filled 5 of his 8 cabinet positions with conservatives from the party that had monopolized power since 1874, the National Autonomists. He expounded on the virtues of "true suffrage," but removed 18 willful governors - including 4 of the UCR's own. He mediated numerous labor conflicts; but proved unable to control police and military brutality against striking workers. The resulting wave of violence was compounded by the creation of the paramilitary Argentine Patriotic League
by a reactionary faction in the Argentine upper class, while Yrigoyen (and the courts) remained largely silent on these developments. Over two thousand strikers perished - some burned alive in silos.
Still, he advanced an array of reforms, including the country's first meaningful pension, collective bargaining
and land reform
laws, as well as expanded access to higher education and the creation of the first significant State enterprise (the oil concern, YPF). The economy rebounded strongly from World War I
-related shortages of goods and credit, and Yrigoyen's vigorous labor policy helped translate this into record living standards.
Yrigoyen prepared to leave office, though not the reins of power; beset by growing rivalries within the UCR itself, he turned to one of the co-founders of the UCR: the Ambassador to France
, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear
. The scion of one of Argentina's traditional landed families, the well-mannered Alvear placated Yrigoyen's fears of losing control over his Radical Civic Union
, a risk Yrigoyen insured himself against by placing his personal friend and former Buenos Aires
Police Chief Elpidio González
as Alvear's running mate.
The conservative congressional opposition that had dogged Yrigoyen early in his tenure had largely been overcome by 1920 through a string of electoral victories. The Senate, however, which was not popularly elected at the time, was wrested from conservative hands only by a series of removal decrees that left 9 vacancies by 1922.
Most other important parties followed suit and, rather than put forth their respesctive parties' or movements' paramount figures as candidates, they fell back on backbenchers with a reformist bent. Conservatives formed an alliance, the National Concentration, but did not nominate their most prominent figure, former Buenos Aires Province
Governor Marcelino Ugarte. They instead nominated a respected reformer, criminal law
attorney Norberto Piñero
. Piñero had helped a needed overhaul of Argentina's penal code in 1890, a record his backers hoped could, in voters' minds, separate the hastily-formed National Concentration from its ties to the violent Argentine Patriotic League. An increasingly respected muck-raker, Lisandro de la Torre
had been unable to promote his Democratic Progressive Party into an effective centrist alternative to the UCR, and chose former Education Minister Dr. Carlos Ibarguren
as the nominee. Argentine Socialists, led by Senator Juan B. Justo
, nominated one of his closest collaborators and a leader in Argentina's cooperative
movement: Congressman Nicolás Repetto
.
The abbreviated campaign resulted in another, landslide victory for the UCR. The party retained the Presidency overwhelmingly, and won 53 of the 82 Congressional seats at stake, losing only in two provinces controlled by provincial parties, and two controlled by dissident UCR groups; the only Senate race, that of the City of Buenos Aires, was again won by the UCR, as well, and the party ended with 15 of the 27 sitting Senators (protracted vacancies excluded). Ambassador Alvear, for his part, did not campaign at all - receiving news for the April 2 results precisely where he received President Yrigoyen's phone call offering him the nomination: in the Argentine Ambassador's residence in Paris.
President
| Party/Electoral Alliance | Votes | Percentage | Electoral College |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radical Civic Union Radical Civic Union The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina... (UCR) |
406,304 | 49.1% | 235 |
| National Concentration | 64,942 | 7.8% | 60 |
| Democratic Progressive Party Democratic Progressive Party (Argentina) The Democratic Progressive Party is a provincial political party in Santa Fe, Argentina. It was founded by Lisandro de la Torre at the Savoy Hotel in Buenos Aires on December 14, 1914. One of its founders was the academic Dr... |
63,147 | 7.7% | 10 |
| Socialist Party | 54,813 | 6.6% | 22 |
| Dissident UCR parties (6) | 58,749 | 7.1% | 6 |
| Others | 180,196 | 21.7% | 3 |
| Positive votes | 828,151 | 94.5% | 336 |
| blank or nullified votes | 48,203 | 5.5% | 40 a |
| Total votes | 876,354 | 100.0% | 376 |
Argentine Chamber of DeputiesArgentine Chamber of DeputiesThe Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
| Party/Electoral Alliance | Seats | Change | % of votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| UCR | 91 | 7 | 49.1% |
| Democratic Progressive | 14 | 5 | 7.6% |
| Conservative | 14 | = | 7.5% |
| Socialist | 10 | = | 6.6% |
| Liberal (Corrientes Province Corrientes Province Corrientes is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by : Paraguay, the province of Misiones, Brazil, Uruguay, and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.-History:... ) |
3 | = | 2.8% |
| Dissident UCR | 3 | = | 5.4% |
| Provincial Union (Salta Province Salta Province Salta is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Catamarca. It also surrounds Jujuy... ) |
3 | = | 2.0% |
| National Concentration | 2 | 2 | 7.8% |
| Others | 11 | 5.7% | |
| Invalid votes | 7a | 5.5% | |
| Total | 158 | 100.0% |
Notes: a) seats left vacant.
Argentine SenateArgentine SenateThe Argentine Senate is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires...
| Party/Electoral Alliance | New Seats | Total |
|---|---|---|
| UCR | 4 | 15 * |
| Dissident UCR | 3 | 3 |
| Provincial Union Robustiano Patrón Costas Robustiano Patrón Costas was a conservative Argentine politician and businessman who served as interim President of the nation and governor of his native province. He led the National Democratic Party.... (Salta Province Salta Province Salta is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Catamarca. It also surrounds Jujuy... ) |
0 | 2 |
| Liberal Party of San Luis San Luis Province San Luis is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country . Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.-History:... |
0 | 2 |
| Autonomist Party of Corrientes Autonomist Party of Corrientes The Autonomist Party of Corrientes is a provincial political party in Argentina, Corrientes Province.... |
1 | 1 |
| Conservative | 0 | 1 |
| Socialist | 0 | 1 |
| Popular Concentration (Santiago del Estero Province Santiago del Estero Province Santiago del Estero is a province of Argentina, located in the north of the country. Neighbouring provinces are from the north clockwise Salta, Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Catamarca and Tucumán.-History:... ) |
0 | 1 |
| Republican Party of Jujuy Jujuy Province Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.-History:... |
1 | 0 * |
| Civic Concentration (San Juan Province San Juan Province (Argentina) San Juan is a province of Argentina, located in the western part of the country. Neighbouring provinces are, moving clockwise from the north, La Rioja, San Luis and Mendoza. It borders with Chile at the west.... ) |
0 | 2 |
| Seats left vacant | 3 | |
| Total | 10 | 30 |
(*): Seat left vacant until April 1923 or later.
Background
Hipólito YrigoyenHipólito Yrigoyen
Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Irigoyen Alem was twice President of Argentina . His activism became the prime impetus behind the obtainment of universal suffrage in Argentina in 1912...
's presidency, the first elected via the universal ballot (though without women), was marked by great contradictions. One of the founders in 1891 of Argentina's first successful pluralist party, the Radical Civic Union
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...
(UCR), Yrigoyen filled 5 of his 8 cabinet positions with conservatives from the party that had monopolized power since 1874, the National Autonomists. He expounded on the virtues of "true suffrage," but removed 18 willful governors - including 4 of the UCR's own. He mediated numerous labor conflicts; but proved unable to control police and military brutality against striking workers. The resulting wave of violence was compounded by the creation of the paramilitary Argentine Patriotic League
Argentine Patriotic League
The Argentine Patriotic League was a Nacionalista paramilitary group, officially created in Buenos Aires on January 16, 1919, during the Tragic week events. Presided over by Manuel Carlés, a professor at the Military College and the Escuela Superior de Guerra, it also counted among its members the...
by a reactionary faction in the Argentine upper class, while Yrigoyen (and the courts) remained largely silent on these developments. Over two thousand strikers perished - some burned alive in silos.
Still, he advanced an array of reforms, including the country's first meaningful pension, collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
and land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
laws, as well as expanded access to higher education and the creation of the first significant State enterprise (the oil concern, YPF). The economy rebounded strongly from World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
-related shortages of goods and credit, and Yrigoyen's vigorous labor policy helped translate this into record living standards.
Yrigoyen prepared to leave office, though not the reins of power; beset by growing rivalries within the UCR itself, he turned to one of the co-founders of the UCR: the Ambassador to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear
Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear
Máximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear Pacheco , better known as Marcelo T. de Alvear was an Argentine politician and President of Argentina from October 12, 1922 to October 12, 1928.-Biography:...
. The scion of one of Argentina's traditional landed families, the well-mannered Alvear placated Yrigoyen's fears of losing control over his Radical Civic Union
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...
, a risk Yrigoyen insured himself against by placing his personal friend and former Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
Police Chief Elpidio González
Elpidio González
Elpidio González was an Argentine politician of the Radical Civic Union. He was Vice President from 1922 to 1928 in the Marcelo T. de Alvear administration....
as Alvear's running mate.
The conservative congressional opposition that had dogged Yrigoyen early in his tenure had largely been overcome by 1920 through a string of electoral victories. The Senate, however, which was not popularly elected at the time, was wrested from conservative hands only by a series of removal decrees that left 9 vacancies by 1922.
Most other important parties followed suit and, rather than put forth their respesctive parties' or movements' paramount figures as candidates, they fell back on backbenchers with a reformist bent. Conservatives formed an alliance, the National Concentration, but did not nominate their most prominent figure, former Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
Governor Marcelino Ugarte. They instead nominated a respected reformer, criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
attorney Norberto Piñero
Norberto Piñero
Norberto Piñero was a prominent Argentine lawyer, writer and conservative politician.-Life and times:Norberto Piñero was born to a landed family in the Province of Buenos Aires, in 1858. He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and received a juris doctor in 1882...
. Piñero had helped a needed overhaul of Argentina's penal code in 1890, a record his backers hoped could, in voters' minds, separate the hastily-formed National Concentration from its ties to the violent Argentine Patriotic League. An increasingly respected muck-raker, Lisandro de la Torre
Lisandro de la Torre
Lisandro de la Torre was an Argentine politician, born in Rosario, province of Santa Fe.De la Torre became a lawyer in 1890. His thesis about municipalities and communes, as well as other works of his, gave rise to the idea of municipal autonomy in Argentina, which was included in the Argentine...
had been unable to promote his Democratic Progressive Party into an effective centrist alternative to the UCR, and chose former Education Minister Dr. Carlos Ibarguren
Carlos Ibarguren
Carlos Ibarguren Uriburu was an Argentine academic, historian and politician. As a writer he was noted as one of the foremost academics of the history of Argentina as well as a leading expert on constitutional law...
as the nominee. Argentine Socialists, led by Senator Juan B. Justo
Juan B. Justo
Juan Bautista Justo was an Argentine physician, journalist, politician, and writer. After finishing medical school he joined the Unión Cívica Radical, later participating in the foundation of the Socialist Party in 1896, of which he was chief director until his death...
, nominated one of his closest collaborators and a leader in Argentina's cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
movement: Congressman Nicolás Repetto
Nicolás Repetto
Nicolás Repetto was an Argentine physician and leader of the Socialist Party of Argentina.-Biography:Nicolás Repetto was born in Buenos Aires in 1871 and enrolled at the prestigious Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, a public college preparatory school. He was introduced to politics by a friend and...
.
The abbreviated campaign resulted in another, landslide victory for the UCR. The party retained the Presidency overwhelmingly, and won 53 of the 82 Congressional seats at stake, losing only in two provinces controlled by provincial parties, and two controlled by dissident UCR groups; the only Senate race, that of the City of Buenos Aires, was again won by the UCR, as well, and the party ended with 15 of the 27 sitting Senators (protracted vacancies excluded). Ambassador Alvear, for his part, did not campaign at all - receiving news for the April 2 results precisely where he received President Yrigoyen's phone call offering him the nomination: in the Argentine Ambassador's residence in Paris.
Candidates
- Radical Civic Union (populist): Ambassador to France Marcelo Torcuato de AlvearMarcelo Torcuato de AlvearMáximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear Pacheco , better known as Marcelo T. de Alvear was an Argentine politician and President of Argentina from October 12, 1922 to October 12, 1928.-Biography:...
of the city of Buenos AiresBuenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent... - National Concentration (conservative): Former Minister of Education Norberto PiñeroNorberto PiñeroNorberto Piñero was a prominent Argentine lawyer, writer and conservative politician.-Life and times:Norberto Piñero was born to a landed family in the Province of Buenos Aires, in 1858. He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and received a juris doctor in 1882...
of the city of Buenos Aires - Democratic Progressive Party (reformist): Forme Minister of Justice Carlos IbargurenCarlos IbargurenCarlos Ibarguren Uriburu was an Argentine academic, historian and politician. As a writer he was noted as one of the foremost academics of the history of Argentina as well as a leading expert on constitutional law...
of Salta ProvinceSalta ProvinceSalta is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Catamarca. It also surrounds Jujuy... - Socialist Party: Deputy Nicolás RepettoNicolás RepettoNicolás Repetto was an Argentine physician and leader of the Socialist Party of Argentina.-Biography:Nicolás Repetto was born in Buenos Aires in 1871 and enrolled at the prestigious Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, a public college preparatory school. He was introduced to politics by a friend and...
of the city of Buenos AiresBuenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent... - Independent UCR (anti-Yrigoyen): Miguel LaurencenaMiguel LaurencenaMiguel Laurencena was a Argentine lawyer and politician....
of Entre Ríos ProvinceEntre Ríos ProvinceEntre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....