Argentine legislative election, 1954

The Argentine legislative election of 1954 was held on 25 April. Voters chose both their legislators and the Vice-President of Argentina; with a turnout of 86.0%, it produced the following results:

Congress

Party/Electoral Alliance	Seats	% of votes
Peronist Party	140	64.3%
Radical Civic Union	12	32.3%
Others	5	3.4%
Invalid votes		2.1%
Total	157	100.0%

^[1]

Vice Presidency

Party/Electoral Alliance	Seats	% of votes
Peronist Party	4,944,106	63.8%
Radical Civic Union	2,493,422	32.2%
Others	305,956	4.0%
Invalid votes	163,374	2.1%
Total	7,906,858	100.0%

^[1]^[2]

Background

Alberto Teisaire

The death of his wife and closest advisor, Evita, stuck President Juan Perón amid serious difficulties. A severe drought in 1952 and years of pessimism in Argentina's important agrarian sector depleted foreign reserves and forced Perón to curtail public lending and spending programs. The recession (and a bumper crop) did, however, allow Central Bank reserves to recover and brought inflation (50% in 1951) to single digits.^[3]

Controversy surrounding Perón's in-laws and political violence both by and against his Peronist movement had dogged the president in the first half of 1953, and he took the opportunity of upcoming legislative polls to test his popularity. The Argentine Constitution did not require it at the time; but the president announced a special election to replace the late Vice President, Hortensio Quijano. Dr. Quijano had died on April 3, 1952, two months and one day before his term as vice president of Argentina was to have ended on June 4, 1952, caused Perón to nominate Senator Alberto Teisaire, as the candidate for the then named Partido Peronista(Peronist Party).

Crisólogo Larralde

Teisaire was familiar to Perón from the 1943 coup d'état; the former rear admiral had helped retain the normally restive Navy's support for the populist leader before and after Perón's 1946 election and, after eight years in the Senate, he remained close to the military - a far from trivial consideration.^[4]

In the opposition since 15 years before Perón took office, the centrist UCR had been burdened by censorship and sundry forms of harassment since 1930, and 1953 had been marked by the jailing of most of their leaders. Among the few prominent figures in the party available to run for the vice-presidency was Crisólogo Larralde. Larralde had opposed the UCR's 1945 alliance with conservatives and socialists against Perón, and was a well-known figure in the UCR's dissident, pro-Perón "Renewal Group." This did not, however, ease the UCR's restriction to access to most mass media, and the party was defeated by similar numbers to their 1951 loss.^[5]

Notes

1 2 Nohlen, Dieter. Elections in the Americas. Oxford University Press, 2005.
↑ Los Andes: Alberto Teisaire, el mendocino vicepresidente de Perón (Spanish)
↑ Todo Argentina: 1953 (Spanish)
↑ Potash, Robert. The Army and Politics in Argentina. Stanford University Press, 1996.
↑ Todo Argentina: 1954 (Spanish)

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

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