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 55.2%, with the UCR garnering a plurality at 49.0% of the popular vote and carrying 12 of the 14 states of Argentina.

1922 Argentine general election

2 April 1922

Nominee Marcelo T. de Alvear Norberto Piñero Party Radical Civic Union Conservative Party Alliance — National Concentration Home state Buenos Aires City Buenos Aires City Running mate Elpidio González Rafael Núñez Electoral vote 235 60 States carried 12 2 Popular vote 406.304 123.691 Percentage 49.0% 14.9%

Most voted party by province.

President before election Hipólito Yrigoyen Radical Civic Union Elected President Marcelo T. de Alvear Radical Civic Union

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

• Radical Civic Union (populist): Ambassador to France Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear of the city of Buenos Aires
• National Concentration (conservative): Former Minister of Education Norberto Piñero of the city of Buenos Aires
• Democratic Progressive Party (reformist): Former Minister of Justice Carlos Ibarguren of Salta Province
• Socialist Party: Deputy Nicolás Repetto of the city of Buenos Aires
• Independent UCR (anti-Yrigoyen): Miguel Laurencena of Entre Ríos Province

• 
  Alvear
• 
  Piñero
• 
  Ibarguren
• 
  Repetto

President

Popular Vote

Party/Electoral Alliance	Votes	Percentage
Radical Civic Union (UCR)	406,304	49.1%
National Concentration	64,942	7.8%
Democratic Progressive Party	63,147	7.7%
Socialist Party	54,813	6.6%
Dissident UCR parties (6)	58,749	7.1%
Others	180,196	21.7%
Positive votes	828,151	94.5%
blank or nullified votes	48,203	5.5%
Total votes	876,354	100.0%
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 Alvear	Piñero	Repetto	Ibarguren	Laurencena	Núñez	J. Correa		González	Núñez	de Tomaso	F. E. Correa	Melo	Quiroga
Buenos Aires City	46		22						46		22
Buenos Aires	56	22							56	22
Catamarca	6	1							6	1
Córdoba	22	9							22	9
Corrientes	6	11							6	11
Entre Ríos	15	3							15	3
Jujuy	6	2							6	2
La Rioja	6	2							6	2
Mendoza	11								11
Salta	3	4							3	4
San Juan	2				6		1		2				6	1
San Luis	7								7
Santa Fe	28			10					28			10
Santiago del Estero	11					2			11			2
Tucumán	10	6							10	6
Total	235	60	22	10	6	2	1		235	60[lower-alpha 1]	22	12	6	1
Source:[7]

Argentine Chamber of Deputies

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)	3	=	2.8%
Dissident UCR	3	=	5.4%
Provincial Union (Salta Province)	3	=	2.0%
National Concentration	2	2	7.8%
Others	11		5.7%
Invalid votes	7^a		5.5%
Total	158		100.0%

[6]

Notes: a) seats left vacant.

Argentine Senate

Party/Electoral Alliance	New Seats	Total
UCR	4	15 *
Dissident UCR	3	3
Provincial Union (Salta Province)	0	2
Liberal Party of San Luis	0	2
Autonomist Party of Corrientes	1	1
Conservative	0	1
Socialist	0	1
Popular Concentration (Santiago del Estero Province)	0	1
Republican Party of Jujuy	1	0 *
Civic Concentration (San Juan Province)	0	2
Seats left vacant		3
Total	10	30

[8] (*): Seat left vacant until April 1923 or later.

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 (in Spanish)
5. Luna, Félix. Yrigoyen, el templario de la libertad. Buenos Aires: Raigal, 1954.
6. Nohlen, Dieter. Elections in the Americas. Oxford University Press, 2005.
7. Diario de sesiones de la Cámara de Senadores - Año 1922. Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos de L. J. Rosso y Cía. 1924. pp. 119–137.
8. Senado de la Nación: Histórico de Senadores Archived 2010-03-11 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)