1922 Argentine general election

1922 Argentine general election
	Presidential election
376 members of the Electoral College; 189 votes needed to win
Registered	1,586,366
Turnout	55.32%
	Most voted party by province.
President before election; Hipólito Yrigoyen; Radical Civic Union	Elected President ; Marcelo T. de Alvear; Radical Civic Union
	Legislative election
	85 of 158 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Turnout	56.41%
Chamber of Deputies
	Results by province

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.

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]

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

Presidential candidate	Vice Presidential candidate	Party		Popular vote		Electoral vote
Presidential candidate	Vice Presidential candidate	Party		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
No candidates			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^[a]
	Antonio de Tomaso	Socialist Party	22
	Francisco E. Correa	Democratic Progressive Party	12
	Carlos Francisco Melo	Principista Radical Civic Union	6
	Marcial V. Quiroga^[b]	—	1
Total voters			336
Did not vote			40
Total			376

Electoral Vote by Province

Province	President							Vice President
Province	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^[a]	22	12	6	1
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

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