1928 Argentine general election
Presidential election
← 1922 1 April 1928 1931 →
376 members of the Electoral College
189 votes needed to win
Registered1,807,566
Turnout80.86%
 
Nominee Hipólito Yrigoyen Leopoldo Melo
Party Radical Civic Union Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union
Running mate Francisco Beiró Vicente Gallo
Electoral vote 249 124
States carried 13 + CF 1
Popular vote 839,140 470,050
Percentage 61.42% 34.48%
Most voted party by province.
President before election

Marcelo T. de Alvear
UCR

Elected President

Hipólito Yrigoyen
UCR

Legislative election
← 1926 1 April 1928 1930 →
80 of 158 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Turnout83.12%
Party % Seats +/–
Chamber of Deputies
Radical Civic Union

56.92% 53 +15
Confederation of the Right

29.06% 21 −22
Independent Socialist Party

3.89% 6 +6
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Results by province

The Argentine general election of 1928 was held on 1 April, with a turnout of 80.9%.

Background

Former President Hipólito Yrigoyen works the crowd in a 1926 rally. Nostalgia for the charismatic populist brought UCR voters back into his fold in 1928.

Former President Hipólito Yrigoyen's differences with his successor and erstwhile ally, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, persuaded him to campaign for the presidency again. Doing so meant overcoming a host of obstacles, however: his "Antipersonalist" opposition within the UCR, though divided, eroded his allies' majority in Congress from 91 seats (out of 158) to 72 in 1924 and 60 in 1926,[1] and he himself was 78 and in declining health.

These developments encouraged not only the Antipersonalists, but also conservatives, who united behind Julio A. Roca's Rightist Confederation. The Governor of the important Córdoba Province, Roca was the son of General Julio Roca, who had dominated the country politically between 1880 and 1906 and, in the minds of their supporters, recalled a certain nostalgia for the pastoral Argentina of the time. President Alvear's Antipersonalist UCR nominated the leader of the 1924 dissension that created the movement, Senator Leopoldo Melo. Melo underscored the conservative bent of his campaign by naming Senator Vicente Gallo as his running mate; Gallo was a founding member of the paramilitary Argentine Patriotic League, and had resigned as President Alvear's Interior Minister after unsuccessfully lobbying to have a pro-Yrigoyen governor removed.[2]

The Socialists, who vied for the majority in the Buenos Aires City Legislature (but had little following elsewhere), themselves balked at the possibility of victory in 1928 and split during their 1927 convention over Senator Juan B. Justo's intransigent leadership of the party. Senator Justo died suddenly in January 1928, and the party presented two tickets: the Authentic Socialists, led by Congressman Mario Bravo and running only in the City of Buenos Aires, and the more conservative Independent Socialists, led Justo's running-mate, former University of La Plata Director José Nicolás Matienzo.[3]

Election night was a referendum on the charismatic Yrigoyen, as well as on the largely positive memories voters had of 1916—22 term. Yrigoyen had further built on this sentiment by focusing debate in the closing days of the campaign on the future of YPF, thereby presenting himself as its best defense against the oil concern's chief antagonist, Standard Oil. His ticket swept the polls, recovering the majority it enjoyed in the Lower House in the early 1920s (with 53 of 79 seats at stake), and winning 5 of 10 contested Senate seats. His faction won majorities in all major districts: the City of Buenos Aires, and in Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Santa Fe Provinces (the latter two had been in opposition hands since 1920 and 1918, respectively). Mendoza Province, which remained in the reformist former Governor Carlos Washington Lencinas' Dissident UCR column, continued to be denied its two senators by the body, itself.[4]

Bravo's Authentic Socialists lost to Matienzo's splinter ticket (though only an endorsement by San Juan Governor Federico Cantoni gave the latter 3 electoral votes).[3] Roca's Unified Front, which lost in their home province of Córdoba, had endorsed the Antipersonalist UCR Melo-Gallo ticket, and pledged their 20 electors to the latter in a symbolic alliance. Minor and provincial parties, for their part, opted instead to abstain from casting most of their combined 84 electoral votes, thereby creating the largest such deficit in the history of the Argentine Electoral College (abolished in 1994 by the constitutional convention held that year). Yrigoyen's running mate, Francisco Beiró, died before taking office, and Córdoba Governor Enrique Martínez was elected to the post by the electoral college.[5] Yrigoyen was sworn in on October 12, 1928.

Candidates

Results

President

Presidential
candidate 		Vice Presidential
candidate 		Party Popular vote Electoral vote
Votes % Votes %
Hipólito Yrigoyen Francisco Beiró Radical Civic Union (UCR) 839,140 61.42 249 65.16
Leopoldo Melo Vicente Gallo Total Melo - Gallo 430,050 31.48 124 34.04
Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union (UCR-A) 155,371 11.37
United Front 89,249 6.53
Conservative Party (PC) 73,048 5.35
Unified Radical Civic Union (UCR-U) 47,412 3.47
Lencinist Radical Civic Union (UCR-L) 20,166 1.48
Blockist Radical Civic Union (UCR-B) 16,379 1.20
Liberal Party of Tucumán 15,718 1.15
Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) 11,300 0.83
Liberal Party of Mendoza 1,407 0.10
Mario Bravo Nicolás Repetto Socialist Party (PS) 67,423 4.94
No candidates Democratic Progressive Party (PDP) 14,173 1.04
José Nicolás Matienzo Manuel Carlés Total Matienzo - Carlés 6,000 0.44 3 0.80
Radical Civic Union - Railway to Jáchal 3,218 0.24
Radical Civic Union - Railway to Calingasta 2,782 0.20
Rodolfo Ghioldi Miguel Contreras Communist Party (PC) 4,658 0.34
José Fernando Penelón Florindo Moretti Communist Party of the Argentine Republic (PCRA) 1,286 0.09
No candidates Communist Workers' Party (PCO) 493 0.04
Others 2,996 0.22
Total 1,366,219 100
Positive votes 1,366,219 93.47
Blank votes 65,245 4.46
Tally sheet differences 30,141 2.06
Total votes 1,461,605 100
Registered voters/turnout 1,807,566 80.86
Sources:[6][7][8]

Chamber of Deputies

Party Votes % Seats won Total seats
Radical Civic Union (UCR) 751,044 56.92 53 89
Total Confederation of the Right 383,461 29.06 21 57
Unified Radical Civic Union (UCR-U) 70,400 5.34 4 12
United Front 67,350 5.10 — —
Conservative Party (PC) 65,101 4.93 8 15
Antipersonalist Radical Civic Union (UCR-A) 59,144 4.48 1 8
Democratic Party of Córdoba (PD) 32,454 2.46 3 6
Autonomist Party of Corrientes (PACo) 24,871 1.88 2 3
Lencinist Radical Civic Union (UCR-L) 20,287 1.54 1 1
Liberal Party of Corrientes (PLCo) 15,739 1.19 — 2
Liberal Party of Tucumán 14,886 1.13 1 4
Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) 11,255 0.85 1 1
Liberal Party of Mendoza 1,974 0.15 — 1
Blockist Radical Civic Union Did not run — 2
Provincial Union Did not run — 2
Socialist Party (PS) 70,023 5.31 — 4
Independent Socialist Party (PSI) 51,273 3.89 6 6
Democratic Progressive Party (PDP) 15,328 1.16 — —
Communist Party (PCA) 4,248 0.32 — —
Public Health Party 3,538 0.27 — —
Communist Party of the Argentine Republic (PCRA) 2,082 0.16 — —
Independent Workers' Party 1,506 0.11 — —
Feminist Party 215 0.02 — —
Communist Workers' Party 144 0.01 — —
Labor Party 11 0.00 — —
Independents 36,611 2.77 — —
Vacant seats — 2
Total 1,319,484 100 80 158
Positive votes 1,319,484 94.70
Invalid/blank votes 73,832 5.30
Total votes 1,393,316 100
Registered voters/turnout 1,676,217 83.12
Sources:[6][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

References

  1. ^ Nohlen, Dieter. Elections in the Americas. Oxford University Press, 2005.
  2. ^ Todo Argentina: 1927 Archived 2018-10-02 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  3. ^ a b Diario Libre: Historia electoral de la Argentina (1904-32) Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  4. ^ Unión Cívica Radical. Evolución del radicalismo Parte I (1893-1928) Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  5. ^ Todo Argentina: 1928 (in Spanish)
  6. ^ a b Cantón, Darío (1968). Materiales para el estudio de la sociología política en la Argentina (PDF). Vol. Tomo I. Buenos Aires: Centro de Investigaciones Sociales - Torcuato di Tella Institute. p. 101.
  7. ^ Historia Electoral Argentina (1912-2007) (PDF). Ministry of Interior - Subsecretaría de Asuntos Políticos y Electorales. December 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 September 2014.
  8. ^ "Posición definitiva de los candidatos a diputados nacionales por nuestra provincia". Diario Santa Fe. 25 April 1928.
  9. ^ Expediente 112-D-1928 (PDF). Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina. 1928.
  10. ^ Expediente 82-D-1928 (PDF). Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina. 1928.
  11. ^ "La junta electoral de la Capital Federal dio ayer por terminadas sus tareas". El Orden. 6 May 1928.
  12. ^ Expediente 15-D-1928 (PDF). Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina. 1928.
  13. ^ "Termina Córdoba". El Orden. 26 April 1928.
  14. ^ Expediente 21-D-1928 (PDF). Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina. 1928.
  15. ^ Expediente 10-D-1928 (PDF). Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina. 1928.
  16. ^ Expediente 70-D-1928 (PDF). Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina. 1928.
  17. ^ Expediente 7-D-1928 (PDF). Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina. 1928.
  18. ^ Expediente 30-OV-1928 (PDF). Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina. 1928.
  19. ^ Expediente 8-D-1928 (PDF). Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina. 1928.
  20. ^ "En Santiago del Estero". El Orden. 21 April 1928.
  21. ^ Las Fuerzas Armadas restituyen el imperio de la soberanía popular: Las elecciones generales de 1946 (PDF). Vol. Tomo I. Buenos Aires: Imprenta de la Cámara de Diputados. 1946. p. 432.
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