1916 Argentine general election

1916 Argentine general election
	Presidential election
300 members of the Electoral College; 151 votes needed to win
	Most voted party by province.
President before election; Victorino de la Plaza; National Autonomist Party	Elected President ; Hipólito Yrigoyen; Radical Civic Union
	Legislative election
	62 of 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Turnout	65.59%
Chamber of Deputies
	Results by province

General elections were held in Argentina on 2 April 1916. Voters elected the President, legislators, and local officials. The first secret-ballot presidential elections in the nation's history, they were mandatory and had a turnout of 62.8%. The turnout for the Chamber of Deputies election was 65.9%.

Background

UCR leader Hipólito Yrigoyen greets supporters following his 1916 victory. His advocacy for free elections for over a generation resulted in Argentina's first pluralist government.

President Roque Sáenz Peña kept his word to the exiled leader of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), Hipólito Yrigoyen, who in turn abandoned his party's twenty-year-old boycott of elections. The president overcame nearly two years of conservative opposition in Congress (and pressure from his own social class) to pass in 1912 what was later known as the Sáenz Peña Law, which mandated universal male suffrage and the secret ballot. His health deteriorating quickly, the President lived to see the fruition of his reforms: the 1914 mid-term elections, which gave the UCR 19 out of the 60 Lower House seats in play (the ruling party obtained 10) and the governorship of Santa Fe Province (then the second-most important). Another beneficiary of the Sáenz Peña Law was the Socialist Party, led by Congressman Juan B. Justo. The formerly dominant PAN remained divided between the Conservative Party, led by the Governor of Buenos Aires Province, Marcelino Ugarte, and the Democratic Progressive Party, led by a reformist publisher and Congressman, Lisandro de la Torre.^[1]

Strengthened by both popular appeal and the fractiousness of its opposition, the UCR experienced dissent within from its Santa Fe Province chapter, whose endorsement Yrigoyen was unable to obtain. The Socialists lost one of its best-known lawmakers, Alfredo Palacios, who would run on a splinter Socialist ticket for several future elections. The Conservative Party's presumptive nominee, Governor Ugarte, stepped aside in favor of a lesser-known party figure, San Juan Province Governor Ángel Rojas, in a bid to attract votes from the hinterland and from moderates. President Victorino de la Plaza refused to interfere on behalf of the Conservatives (despite an assassination attempt that would have provided him with ample pretext). Refusing to back them, he fielded his own Provincial Party, which was limited mainly to his native Santiago del Estero Province. Faced with only token opposition from the remnants of the once-paramount PAN, Yrigoyen pledged to donate his salary to charity, if elected, and encouraged the rich country's impoverished majority to know him as "the father of the poor". ^[2]

Election day, April 2, handed an unexpectedly large victory to Yrigoyen, who still had to await the results from the electoral college (which met in July). The dissident Santa Fe UCR had drained a significant number of electors from the official ticket, and Yrigoyen obtained but 133 of the body's 300 electors. Numerous Democratic Progressives, moreover, became faithless electors - pledging their support to the Conservative Party. Santa Fe's UCR, however, resorted to the same tactic, allowing Yrigoyen its 19 electors and making the patient activist for voter rights the first democratically elected President of Argentina.^[3]

Candidates

Radical Civic Union (populist): President of the UCR Hipólito Yrigoyen of the city of Buenos Aires
Conservative Party (conservative): Governor Ángel Rojas of San Juan Province
Democratic Progressive Party (reformist): Deputy Lisandro de la Torre of Santa Fe Province
Socialist Party: Deputy Juan B. Justo of the city of Buenos Aires

Yrigoyen
Rojas
de la Torre
Justo

President

Popular Vote

Presidential candidate	Vice Presidential candidate	Party		Popular vote		Electoral vote
Presidential candidate	Vice Presidential candidate	Party		Votes	%	Votes	%
Hipólito Yrigoyen	Pelagio Luna		Radical Civic Union (UCR)	340.802	47,25	133	44,33
Ángel Dolores Rojas	Juan Eugenio Serú		Total Rojas-Serú	150,245	20.83	70	23.33
			Conservative Party	96,103	13.33	46	15.33
			Popular Party	16,141	2.24	7	2.33
			Democratic Union	13,921	1.93	4	1.33
			Autonomist Party of Corrientes	9,645	1.34
			Civic Concentration	9,170	1.27	7	2.33
			Provincial Party	5,265	0.73	6	2.00
Lisandro de la Torre	Alejandro Carbó		Total de la Torre - Carbó	135,308	18.76	64	21.33
			Democratic Progressive Party (PDP)	115,604	16.03	49	16.33
			Provincial Union	10,909	1.51	8	2.67
			Catamarca Concentration	8,795	1.22	7	2.33
Juan B. Justo	Nicolás Repetto		Socialist Party (PS)	66.397	9,21	14	4,67
No candidates			Dissident Radical Civic Union	28.116	3,90	19	6,33
No candidates			Argentine Socialist Party (PSA)	347	0,05
Total				721.215	100

Positive votes				721.215	96,49
Blank votes				26.256	3,51
Total votes				747.471	100
Registered voters/turnout				1.189.254	62,85
Sources:^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

Electoral Vote

Presidential Candidates		Party	Electoral Votes
	Hipólito Yrigoyen	Radical Civic Union	152
	Ángel Dolores Rojas	Conservative Party	104
	Lisandro de la Torre	Democratic Progressive Party	20
	Juan B. Justo	Socialist Party	14
	Alejandro Carbó	Democratic Progressive Party	8
Total voters			298
Did not vote			2
Total			300

Vice Presidential Candidates		Party	Electoral Votes
	Pelagio Luna	Radical Civic Union	152
	Juan Eugenio Serú	Conservative Party	103
	Alejandro Carbó	Democratic Progressive Party	20
	Nicolás Repetto	Socialist Party	14
	Carlos Ibarguren	Democratic Progressive Party	8
	Julio Argentino Pascual Roca	Conservative Party	1
Total voters			298
Did not vote			2
Total			300

Electoral Vote by Province

Province	President					Vice President
Province	Yrigoyen	Rojas	de la Torre	Justo	Carbó	Luna	Serú	Carbó	Repetto	Ibarguren	Roca
Buenos Aires City	30			14		30			14
Buenos Aires	20	40				20	40
Catamarca	3		7			3		7
Córdoba	18	7				18	7
Corrientes	6	12				6	12
Entre Ríos	15	7				15	7
Jujuy	2	6				2	6
La Rioja	2	6				2	6
Mendoza	8	4				8	3				1
Salta	4	8				4	8
San Juan	3	7				3	7
San Luis		3	7				3	7
Santa Fe	19				8	19				8
Santiago del Estero	10	4				10	4
Tucumán	12		6			12		6
Total	152	104	20	14	8	152	103	20	14	8	1
Sources:^[8]^[9]

Chamber of Deputies

Party		Votes	%	Seats won	Total seats
	Radical Civic Union (UCR)	339,771	45.08	26	47
	Total Conservative Parties	165,729	21.99	18	43
	Conservative Party	112,922	14.98	15	—
	Popular Party	16,394	2.17	—	—
	Democratic Union	15,141	2.01	1	—
	Provincial Union	11,339	1.50	2	—
	Autonomist Party of Corrientes	9,933	1.32	—	—
	Democratic Progressive Party (PDP)	110,238	14.62	7	9
	Socialist Party (PS)	56,204	7.46	3	9
	Dissident Radical Civic Union	29,542	3.92	4	4
	Liberal Party of Corrientes	17,910	2.38	3	6
	Others	34,390	4.56	—	1
Vacant seats				1	1
Total		753,784	100	62	120

Positive votes		753,784	96.63
Blank votes		26,250	3.37
Total votes		780,034	100
Registered voters/turnout		1,189,254	65.59
Sources:^[10]^[11]