Argentine general election, 1958

23 February 1958



Nominee	Arturo Frondizi	Ricardo Balbín
Party	UCRI	UCRP
Home state	Corrientes	Buenos Aires
Running mate	Alejandro Gómez	Santiago H. del Castillo
Popular vote	4.090.840	2.640.454
Percentage	52.77%	34.06%

President before election

Pedro Eugenio Aramburu

Elected President

Arturo Frondizi
URCI

The Argentine general election of 1958 was held on 23 February. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 90.9% (the highest in Argentine electoral history), it produced the following results:

President

Party/Electoral Alliance	Votes	Percentage	Electoral College
Intransigent Radical Civic Union	4,090,840	47.6%	318
Popular Radical Civic Union	2,640,454	30.7%	135
Christian Democratic Party	289,245	3.4%
Socialist Party	262,369	3.1%
Popular Conservative Party	172,721	2.0%
Democratic Progressive Party	127,465	1.5%
Liberal Party of Corrientes	51,092	0.6%	5
Others	118,375	1.4%
Positive votes	7,752,561	90.3%	458
Blank and nullified votes	836,658	9.7%	8 ^a
Total votes	8,589,219	100.0%	466

^aAbstentions.

Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Party/Electoral Alliance	Seats	% of votes
UCRI	133	49.3%
UCR-P	52	31.7%
Liberal Party (Corrientes Province)	2	0.6%
Others		9.2%
Invalid votes		9.2%
Total	187	100.0%

^[1]

Background

The year 1955 cast a long shadow over these elections. President Juan Perón was violently overthrown in September of that year and the succeeding junta banned the Peronist Party and even the possession of Peronist mementoes or the very mention of the former leader or of the late Eva Perón. The junta did, however, convene a Civilian Advisory Board which, to the dismay of many conservatives, recommended against draconian measures or the reversal of most of Perón's reforms. They also called for a referendum ratifying the 1853 Constitution (which Perón had it heavily amended in 1949), while retaining Perón's Article 15, a section devoted to social reforms; the junta's leader, Gen. Pedro Aramburu, backed the panel's findings. An attempted countercoup against the junta, defeated on June 10, led to the execution of 27 plotters (including numerous civilians) and derailed Aramburu's hopes for the creation of a viable political alternative to the populist leader.

Businessman Rogelio Julio Frigerio, who secured Perón's endorsement of Frondizi in 1956, thus determining the outcome of the elections.

Seizing the opportunity, the Radical Civic Union (UCR)'s 1951 vice-presidential nominee, Arturo Frondizi secretly secured an agreement with the exiled Perón, by which the banned Peronists would be given a voice in exchange for their support. The pact, a mere rumor at the time, created a rift within the UCR at their party convention in November 1956, forcing Frondizi and his supporters to run on a splinter ("Intransigent") ticket and leaving more anti-Peronist UCR voters with Ricardo Balbín, the party's 1951 standard bearer. The two wings presented different candidates for the constituent assembly election called for July 28, 1957, with no clear winner, though the deadlocked assembly did ratify the Advisory Board's proposed constitutional changes.

Unmentionable by law, Perón became the central issue of the 1958 campaign. Argentina was abuzz with the staccato sounds of El-qué-te-dije (roughly translated to "You know who"), as he opposed Balbín, who accepted Pres. Aramburu's endorsement as the candidate of the ruling junta. Balbin, and his Radical Civic Union of the People, was dealt a "February surprise" when, four days before the election, the exiled leader publicly announced his endorsement of Frondizi. Blank votes (Peronist voters' choice during the assembly elections of 1957, which they narrowly "won") became Frondizi votes, making him the winner of the 1958 elections in Argentina.

Todo Argentina

Candidates

Intransigent Radical Civic Union (progressive): Former Deputy Arturo Frondizi of Corrientes Province
Popular Radical Civic Union (centrist): Former Deputy Ricardo Balbín of Buenos Aires Province
Christian Democratic Party (progressive): Lucas Ayarragaray
Socialist Party: Former Senator Alfredo Palacios of the city of Buenos Aires

Frondizi
Balbín (left)
Palacios

Elections and referendums in Argentina

Presidential elections	1854 1860 1862 1868 1874 1880 1886 1892 1898 1904 1910 1916 1922 1928 1931 1937 1946 1951 1958 1963 1973 (Mar) 1973 (Sep) 1983 1989 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019

Parliamentary elections	1854 1856 1858 1860 1862 1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1931 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1946 1948 (Mar) 1948 (Dec) 1951 1954 1957 1958 1960 1962 1963 1965 1973 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1994 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019

Provincial elections	1854 1856 1858 1860 1862 1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1931 1934 1936 1937 1938 1940 1942 1946 1948 1951 1954 1957 1958 1960 1962 1963 1965 1973 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2005 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2019

Referendums	1984

↑ Nohlen, Dieter. Elections in the Americas. Oxford University Press, 2005.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.