Argentine presidential election, 1937
Encyclopedia
The Argentine presidential election of 1937 was held on 5 September. With a turnout of 76.2%, it produced the following official results:
aAbstentions.
) proved to be a precedent for the 1937 elections, called to replace outgoing President Agustín Justo. Justo had ruled as an enlightened despot, subordinating national policy to entrenched commercial interests and encouraging systemic fraud in gubernatorial and legislative polls held in 1935, while also promoting record public works spending. His administration initiated the nation's first paved intercity roads, Buenos Aires' massive Nueve de Julio Avenue, and the University of Buenos Aires
School of Medicine, among other works. Even as it recovered from the great depression
, however, Argentina's increasingly urban and industrialized social profile bode poorly for the ruling Concordance, an alliance dominated by the conservative, rural landowner-oriented National Autonomist Party (who held power from 1874 to 1916).
The movement which displaced them in 1916, the centrist, urban-oriented Radical Civic Union
(UCR), turned to Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear
for leadership following the military overthrow of its long-time leader and Alvear's rival, Hipólito Yrigoyen
, in 1930. The scion of one of Argentina's traditional landed families and President from 1922 to 1928 (when his alliance with Yrigoyen soured), Alvear was respected largely for challenging Yrigoyen's personality cult (hence his reputation as the leading "Antipersonalist") and for his decision to boycott the 1931 election, given its uneven playing field.
Negotiations between President Justo and Alvear, who was allowed to return from exile, led to the UCR's lifting of its electoral boycott and to its resurgence by its election in 1936 of Amadeo Sabattini
as Governor of Córdoba Province
as well as victories in Tucumán Province
and in Legislative elections (where despite Justo's orchestrated fraud, they obtained 56 of 158 seats - one more than the Concordance's Congressional stand-ins, the National Democrats).
The UCR nominated the elder statesman its standard bearer in 1937. A seasoned campaigner, Alvear made a compelling choice for his running mate, former Congressman Enrique Mosca
. A vocal opponent of the 1930 Coup d'état despite his differences with President Yrigoyen, Mosca spent the next three and a half years in Ushuaia
's notorious prison (now a museum). Alvear was not universally supported by Argentine progressives, however, and he failed to secure the endorsement of Arturo Jauretche
's influential pro-industrialization political action committee
, FORJA. Alvear was also deprived of a strong potential ally when the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party
(PDP), Lisandro de la Torre
, resigned from the Senate
in protest over his inability to thwart the prevailing climate of corruption and impunity. His running mate in 1931, Nicolás Repetto
, accepted the Socialist Party's nomination. Senator de la Torre's attempted assassination and the 1936 removal of the PDP's sole governor, Luciano Molinas of Santa Fe Province
, became poster children of the "patriotic fraud" that set the stage for the 1937 elections.
President Justo left his party's nomination to its most influential voice, British commercial interests. Dominating his administration's trade and budgetary policies since the Roca-Runciman Treaty
of 1933, they advanced the lead attorney for one of the largest British-owned railway carriers
as the ruling party's nominee: Roberto Ortiz
. Their considerations outweighed others in the party, whose conservatism clashed with the pragmatic Ortiz. The talented lawyer assuaged tensions at the party's July convention by choosing Ramón Castillo
, an ultraconservative lawmaker from then-feudal Catamarca Province
, as his running mate (this seemingly token gesture was quite significant: Ortiz suffered from advanced Type II diabetes).
Flouting his 1935 gentlemen's agreement with Alvear, Justo kept his political and security forces occupied on election day, September 5. Amid widespread reports of intimidation
, ballot stuffing
and voter roll tampering (whereby, according to one observer, "democracy was extended to the hereafter"), Ortiz won the elections handily. One of the beneficiaries of the system of "patriotic fraud" advanced during the "Infamous Decade
," Buenos Aires Province
Governor Manuel Fresco, himself termed the 1937 Argentine general elections as "one of the most fraudulent in history" (Fresco was himself removed by President Ortiz's decree in 1940 at the behest of ultraconservatives).
| Party/Electoral Alliance | Votes | Percentage | Electoral College |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Democratic Party - Concordance alliance | 1,094,685 | 53.8% | 245 |
| 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) |
814,750 | 41.5% | 127 |
| Socialist Party | 50,917 | 2.6% | |
| Others | 2,585 | 0.1% | |
| Positive votes | 1,962,837 | 96.4% | 372 |
| blank or nullified votes | 72,902 | 3.6% | 4 a |
| Total votes | 2,035,839 | 100.0% | 376 |
Background
The 1931 elections (boycotted by the previous ruling party, the centrist Radical Civic UnionRadical 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...
) proved to be a precedent for the 1937 elections, called to replace outgoing President Agustín Justo. Justo had ruled as an enlightened despot, subordinating national policy to entrenched commercial interests and encouraging systemic fraud in gubernatorial and legislative polls held in 1935, while also promoting record public works spending. His administration initiated the nation's first paved intercity roads, Buenos Aires' massive Nueve de Julio Avenue, and the University of Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos...
School of Medicine, among other works. Even as it recovered from the great depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, however, Argentina's increasingly urban and industrialized social profile bode poorly for the ruling Concordance, an alliance dominated by the conservative, rural landowner-oriented National Autonomist Party (who held power from 1874 to 1916).
The movement which displaced them in 1916, the centrist, urban-oriented 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), turned to 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:...
for leadership following the military overthrow of its long-time leader and Alvear's rival, Hipólito Yrigoyen
Hipólito 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...
, in 1930. The scion of one of Argentina's traditional landed families and President from 1922 to 1928 (when his alliance with Yrigoyen soured), Alvear was respected largely for challenging Yrigoyen's personality cult (hence his reputation as the leading "Antipersonalist") and for his decision to boycott the 1931 election, given its uneven playing field.
Negotiations between President Justo and Alvear, who was allowed to return from exile, led to the UCR's lifting of its electoral boycott and to its resurgence by its election in 1936 of Amadeo Sabattini
Amadeo Sabattini
Amadeo Tomás Sabattini was an Argentine politician. He served as Governor of Córdoba from May 17, 1936, to May 17, 1940....
as Governor of Córdoba Province
Córdoba Province (Argentina)
Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...
as well as victories in Tucumán Province
Tucumán Province
Tucumán is the most densely populated, and the smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the capital is San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighboring provinces are, clockwise from the north: Salta, Santiago del Estero and...
and in Legislative elections (where despite Justo's orchestrated fraud, they obtained 56 of 158 seats - one more than the Concordance's Congressional stand-ins, the National Democrats).
Enrique Mosca
Enrique Mosca was an Argentine lawyer and politician prominent in the centrist UCR.-Life and times:Enrique Mosca was born in Santa Fe, in 1880...
. A vocal opponent of the 1930 Coup d'état despite his differences with President Yrigoyen, Mosca spent the next three and a half years in Ushuaia
Ushuaia
Ushuaia may refer to the following:*Ushuaia, a city in Argentina.**Ushuaia Department, an administrative division**Ushuaia River**Ushuaia International Airport**Colegio Nacional de Ushuaia, National School of Ushuaia....
's notorious prison (now a museum). Alvear was not universally supported by Argentine progressives, however, and he failed to secure the endorsement of Arturo Jauretche
Arturo Jauretche
Arturo Martín Jauretche was an Argentine writer, politician, and philosopher.-Early years:...
's influential pro-industrialization political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
, FORJA. Alvear was also deprived of a strong potential ally when the leader of the 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...
(PDP), 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...
, resigned from the Senate
Argentine Senate
The 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...
in protest over his inability to thwart the prevailing climate of corruption and impunity. His running mate in 1931, 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...
, accepted the Socialist Party's nomination. Senator de la Torre's attempted assassination and the 1936 removal of the PDP's sole governor, Luciano Molinas of Santa Fe Province
Santa Fe Province
The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
, became poster children of the "patriotic fraud" that set the stage for the 1937 elections.
President Justo left his party's nomination to its most influential voice, British commercial interests. Dominating his administration's trade and budgetary policies since the Roca-Runciman Treaty
Roca-Runciman Treaty
The Roca-Runciman Treaty was a commercial agreement between Argentina and Great Britain signed in London by the Vice President of Argentina, Julio Argentino Roca, Jr., and the president of the British Board of Trade, Sir Walter Runciman, the British envoy....
of 1933, they advanced the lead attorney for one of the largest British-owned railway carriers
Rail transport in Argentina
The Argentine railway network comprised of track at the end of the Second World War and was, in its time, one of the most extensive and prosperous in South America. However, with the increase in highway construction, there followed a sharp decline in railway profitability, leading to the break-up...
as the ruling party's nominee: Roberto Ortiz
Roberto María Ortiz
Jaime Gerardo Roberto Marcelino María Ortiz Lizardi was President of Argentina from February 20, 1938 to June 27, 1942....
. Their considerations outweighed others in the party, whose conservatism clashed with the pragmatic Ortiz. The talented lawyer assuaged tensions at the party's July convention by choosing Ramón Castillo
Ramón Castillo
Ramón S. Castillo Barrionuevo was a conservative Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina from June 27, 1942 to June 4, 1943...
, an ultraconservative lawmaker from then-feudal Catamarca Province
Catamarca Province
Catamarca is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. The province has a population of 334,568 as per the , and covers an area of 102,602 km². Its literacy rate is 95.5%. Neighbouring provinces are : Salta, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, Córdoba, and La Rioja...
, as his running mate (this seemingly token gesture was quite significant: Ortiz suffered from advanced Type II diabetes).
Flouting his 1935 gentlemen's agreement with Alvear, Justo kept his political and security forces occupied on election day, September 5. Amid widespread reports of intimidation
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
, ballot stuffing
Ballot stuffing
Ballot stuffing is the illegal act of one person submitting multiple ballots during a vote in which only one ballot per person is permitted. The name originates from the earliest days of this practice in which people literally did stuff more than one ballot in a ballot box at the same time...
and voter roll tampering (whereby, according to one observer, "democracy was extended to the hereafter"), Ortiz won the elections handily. One of the beneficiaries of the system of "patriotic fraud" advanced during the "Infamous Decade
Infamous Decade
The Infamous Decade in Argentina is the name given to the period of time that started in 1930 with the coup d'état against President Hipólito Yrigoyen by José Félix Uriburu...
," 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 Manuel Fresco, himself termed the 1937 Argentine general elections as "one of the most fraudulent in history" (Fresco was himself removed by President Ortiz's decree in 1940 at the behest of ultraconservatives).
Candidates
- National Democratic Party - Concordance alliance (moderately conservative): Minister of Finance Roberto OrtizRoberto María OrtizJaime Gerardo Roberto Marcelino María Ortiz Lizardi was President of Argentina from February 20, 1938 to June 27, 1942....
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... - Radical Civic UnionRadical Civic UnionThe 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...
(centrist): Former President 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 Aires - Socialist PartySocialist Party (Argentina)The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in Argentina. The history of socialism in Argentina began in the 1890s, when a group of people, notably Juan B. Justo, expressed the need for a greater social focus....
: Former 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 Aires