1922 Argentine general election

The 1922 Argentine general election was held on 2 April 1922, in which Marcelo T. de Alvear was elected to the office of the president representing the Radical Civic Union (UCR). Voter turnout for the election was 55.3%, with the UCR garnering a plurality at 51% of the popular vote and carrying 9 of the 14 provinces of Argentina.

1922 Argentine general election

Presidential election
2 April 1922

376 members of the Electoral College
189 votes needed to win
Registered1,586,366
Turnout55.32%
 
Nominee Marcelo T. de Alvear Norberto Piñero
Party Radical Civic Union Conservative Party
Alliance National Concentration
Running mate Elpidio González Rafael Núñez
Electoral vote 216 91
States carried 9 + CF 2
Popular vote 419,170 231,102
Percentage 50.49% 27.84%

Most voted party by province.

President before election

Hipólito Yrigoyen
Radical Civic Union

Elected President

Marcelo T. de Alvear
Radical Civic Union

Legislative election
2 April 1922

85 of 158 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Turnout56.41%
Party % Seats +/–
Chamber of Deputies
Radical Civic Union 50.05% 49 -13
National Concentration 26.89% 17 +2
Socialist Party 10.04% 4 -3
Dissident Radical Civic Union 5.96% 7 +4
Democratic Progressive Party 5.33% 3 -11
Results by province

Background

Hipólito Yrigoyen's presidency had been marked by massive 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.[1] 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.[2]

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). Argentina's 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.[3]

Striking Santa Cruz Province sheep ranch workers, prior to their illegal execution in 1921. Yrigoyen's unwillingness to prosecute these abuses did not prevent his UCR from a second, landslide victory amid an economic boom.

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.[4] The conservative opposition in Congress 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 indirectly elected at the time, firmly entrenched in conservative hands only by a series of removal decrees that left 9 vacancies by 1922.[5]

Most other important parties followed suit and, rather than put forth their 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 instead a respected reformer, criminal law attorney, named 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.[2] An increasingly respected Lisandro de la Torre who had been unable to promote his Democratic Progressive Party into an effective centrist alternative to the UCR, 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, the respected Deputy Nicolás Repetto.[4]

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 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.[4]

Candidates

President

Presidential
candidate
Vice Presidential
candidate
Party Popular vote Electoral vote
Votes % Votes %
Marcelo T. de Alvear Elpidio González Radical Civic Union (UCR) 419,170 50.49 216 57.45
Norberto Piñero Rafael Núñez Total Piñero - Núñez 231,102 27.84 91 24.20
Conservative Party 62,029 7.47 29 7.71
Popular Concentration 31,485 3.79 7 1.86
Democratic Party of Córdoba 31,078 3.74 11 2.93
National Concentration 25,415 3.06
Liberal - Autonomist Party of Corrientes 27,239 3.28 12 3.19
Provincial Union 17,120 2.06 12 3.19
Liberal Party of Tucumán 12,817 1.54 6 1.60
Liberal Democratic Party 6,709 0.81 3 0.80
Civic Concentration 5,972 0.72 2 0.53
Caramarca Concentration 5,750 0.69 2 0.53
Liberal Party of Mendoza 3,348 0.40 5 1.33
Popular Union 2,140 0.26 2 0.53
Nicolás Repetto Antonio de Tomaso Socialist Party (PS) 78,472 9.45 22 5.85
Miguel Laurencena Carlos Francisco Melo Total Laurencena - Melo 58,749 7.08 33 8.78
Tucumán Radical Civic Union 16,671 2.01 12 3.19
Lencinist Radical Civic Union (UCR-L) 14,150 1.70 11 2.93
Principist Radical Civic Union 11,670 1.41
Blockist Radical Civic Union (UCR-B) 7,048 0.85 7 1.86
Salta Radical Civic Union 6,707 0.81 3 0.80
Intransigent Radical Civic Union 2,377 0.29
Red Radical Civic Union 126 0.02
Carlos Ibarguren Francisco E. Correa Democratic Progressive Party (PDP) 41,841 5.04 14 3.72
No candidates Jujuy Radical Union 1 0.00
Others 809 0.10
Total 830,144 100
Positive votes 830,144 94.59
Blank votes 14,462 1.65
Tally sheet differences 33,046 3.77
Total votes 877,652 100
Registered voters/turnout 1,586,366 55.32
Source:[6]

Electoral Vote

Presidential Candidates Party Electoral Votes
Marcelo T. de Alvear Radical Civic Union 235
Norberto Piñero National Concentration 60
Nicolás Repetto Socialist Party 22
Carlos Ibarguren Democratic Progressive Party 10
Miguel Laurencena Principista Radical Civic Union 6
Rafael Núñez National Concentration 2
José A. Correa 1
Total voters 336
Did not vote 40
Total 376
Vice Presidential Candidates Party Electoral Votes
Elpidio González Radical Civic Union 235
Rafael Núñez National Concentration 60[lower-alpha 1]
Antonio de Tomaso Socialist Party 22
Francisco E. Correa Democratic Progressive Party 12
Carlos Francisco Melo Principista Radical Civic Union 6
Marcial V. Quiroga[lower-alpha 2] 1
Total voters 336
Did not vote 40
Total 376

Electoral Vote by Province

Province President Vice President
de AlvearPiñeroRepettoIbargurenLaurencenaNúñezJ. CorreaGonzálezNúñezde TomasoF. E. CorreaMeloQuiroga
Buenos Aires City46224622
Buenos Aires56225622
Catamarca6161
Córdoba229229
Corrientes611611
Entre Ríos153153
Jujuy6262
La Rioja6262
Mendoza1111
Salta3434
San Juan261261
San Luis77
Santa Fe28102810
Santiago del Estero112112
Tucumán106106
Total23560221062123560[lower-alpha 1]221261
Source:[7]

Chamber of Deputies

Party Votes  % Seats won Total seats
Radical Civic Union (UCR) 405,316 50.05 49 95
Total National Concentration 217,795 26.89 17 27
Conservative Party 61,795 7.63 6
Popular Concentration 31,612 3.90 2
Democratic Party of Córdoba (PD) 31,393 3.88 2
Liberal - Autonomist Party of Corrientes 27,109 3.35 3
National Concentration 22,010 2.72
Provincial Union 17,732 2.19 3
Liberal Party of Tucumán 12,799 1.58 1
Catamarca Concentration 5,757 0.71
Civic Concentration 5,464 0.67
Popular Union 2,124 0.26
Socialist Party (PS) 81,283 10.04 4 10
Total Dissident Radical Civic Union 48,272 5.96 7 8
Tucumán Radical Civic Union 16,767 2.07 4
Principist Radical Civic Union 14,737 1.82
Blockist Radical Civic Union (UCR-B) 7,240 0.89 2
Salta Radical Civic Union 7,092 0.88 1
Intransigent Radical Civic Union 2,436 0.30
Democratic Progressive Party (PDP) 43,127 5.33 3 12
Communist Party (PC) 6,147 0.76
Feminist Party 717 0.09
Public Health Committee 571 0.07
Others 6,619 0.82
Vacant seats 5 5
Total 809,847 100 85 158
Positive votes 809,847 95.89
Blank votes 13,057 1.55
Tally sheet differences 21,686 2.57
Total votes 844,590 100
Registered voters/turnout 1,497,264 56.41
Source:[6]

Notes

  1. Although only 60 electors voted for Rafael Núñez, in the final count he appears with 58 votes.
  2. In the final count he is named as Marcial B. Quiroga.

References

  1. Intervenciones federales durante la primera presidencia de Hipólito Yrigoyen (in Spanish)
  2. Rock, David. Authoritarian Argentina. University Press of California, 1992.
  3. Todo Argentina: Yrigoyen (in Spanish)
  4. Todo Argentina: 1922 Archived 2018-10-02 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  5. Luna, Félix. Yrigoyen, el templario de la libertad. Buenos Aires: Raigal, 1954.
  6. Memoria del Ministerio del Interior presentada al Honorable Congreso de la Nación 1921-1922. Buenos Aires. 1922. pp. 239–310.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. "Diario de sesiones de la Cámara de Senadores - Año 1922". Diario de Sesiones del Honorable Senado de la Nacion. Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos de L. J. Rosso y Cía.: 119–137 1924.
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