September 1973 Argentine presidential election

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September 1973 Argentine presidential election
← March 1973 23 September 1973 1983 →
 
Nominee Juan Perón Ricardo Balbín Francisco Manrique
Party Justicialist Party Radical Civic Union
Federal Party
Alliance Justicialist Liberation Front
—
 Federalist Popular Alliance
Running mate Isabel Perón Fernando de la Rúa Rafael M. Raymonda
States carried 23 +
City of Buenos Aires
 		0 0
Popular vote 7,359,252 2,905,719 1,450,996
Percentage 61.86% 24.42% 12.20%
Most voted party by province.
President before election

Raúl Lastiri
Justicialist Party

Elected President

Juan Perón
Justicialist Party

The second Argentine general election of 1973 was held on 23 September.

Background

The jubilation that followed the May 25, 1973, return to democracy (following over six and a half years of military rule) was soon clouded by political friction and unforeseen events. President

Córdoba Province) and Alberto Martínez Baca (Governor of Mendoza Province), among others. This new-found prominence among the Argentine left encouraged an increasingly violent reaction among the far right. Among Cámpora's appointees was one insisted on by his patron, Juan Perón: José López Rega, a former policeman with an interest in the occult close to the Perón household since 1965.[1]

Perón's unconventional bid for new elections was made possible partly by the initial success of José Ber Gelbard's "Social Pact."

López Rega, formally Minister of Social Policy, quickly parlayed his portfolio control over nearly 30 percent of the national budget into a well-funded paramilitary force, the

pitched battles resulting in perhaps over a hundred deaths and Perón's public, July 13 suggestion that Cámpora resign.[1]

The calculating López Rega seized on this to prevail on Vice President Vicente Solano Lima and Senate President Alejandro Díaz Bialet to resign, as well, leaving a constitutional vacuum referred to as an "acephaly" — the absence of a head of state. This move created both the need for new elections and the chance to remove a number of Cámpora's leftist advisers; it also left the nation's highest office to the President of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies (lower house), Raúl Lastiri, who was, despite being a year older than López Rega, the powerful Social Policy Minister's son-in-law. The cautious Lastiri continued Cámpora's populist socio-economic policies; inheriting a growing threat from an increasingly armed Peronist Youth and the newly-active Trotskyite People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), which, in only three months, attacked a military installation and murdered a number of military figures, he replaced Interior Minister Righi and called elections for September 23. The runners-up in the March elections — Ricardo Balbín (UCR) and Francisco Manrique (APF) — again accepted their respective party's nomination, with Manrique obtaining the endorsement of the PDP and naming its leader as his running mate.[2]

Increasing violence led many in Argentina, including much of the

armed forces to conclude that only Perón commanded enough respect to persuade extremists away from hostilities. Gathering in Buenos Aires' renowned Teatro Colón, the Justicialist Party struggled to nominate Perón's running mate. The choice of the leader's own wife, Isabel, intrigued the convention — she was, after all, the only prominent Peronist (aside from Perón himself) not publicly associated with any one faction within the fractious movement. Opposed to López Rega's suggestion at first, the aging Perón (who would, in theory, serve until May 1977) set aside strong personal doubts as to his wife's readiness for office and agreed. The two sailed into office in a record landslide on the same FREJULI umbrella ticket on which Cámpora had been elected only six months earlier.[3]

Candidates
  • Perón
    Perón
  • Balbín
    Balbín
  • Manrique
    Manrique
  • Coral
    Coral

Results

Presidential
candidate 		Vice Presidential
candidate 		Party Votes %
Juan Domingo Perón
 Isabel Perón Total Perón - Perón 7,359,252 61.86
Justicialist Liberation Front (FREJULI) 6,469,525 54.38
Popular Left Front (FIP) 889,727 7.48
Ricardo Balbín Fernando de la Rúa Radical Civic Union (UCR) 2,905,719 24.42
Francisco Manrique Rafael Martínez Raymonda Federalist Popular Alliance (APF) 1,450,996 12.20
Juan Carlos Coral José Francisco Páez Worker's Socialist Party (PST) 181,474 1.53
Total 11,897,441 100
Positive votes 11,897,441 98.69
Blank votes 108,785 0.90
Invalid votes 49,412 0.41
Total votes 12,055,638 100
Registered voters/turnout 14,312,405 84.23
Source:[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Page, Joseph. Perón: A biography. Random House, 1983. [page needed]
  2. ^ Todo Argentina: 1973. (in Spanish)
  3. ^ Martínez, Tomás Eloy. La novela de Perón. Random House, 1985. [page needed]
  4. ISBN 950-685-009-7
    .
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