September 1973 Argentine presidential election
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Most voted party by province.
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The second Argentine general election of 1973 was held on 23 September.
Background
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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
Hector Campora
, who took his Oath of Office in the presence of
Cuban
President
Osvaldo Dorticos
and
Chilean
leader
Salvador Allende
?both consular figures in Latin American Marxism?promptly declared a near-blanket amnesty for the several hundred political prisoners held by
Alejandro Lanusse
's regime (many in inhospitable camps such as the one in
Trelew
, scene of a
1972 mass execution
). Campora also made controversial appointments, such as Rodolfo Puiggros as President of the
University of Buenos Aires
,
Esteban Righi
as Minister of the Interior (overseeing law enforcement) and Julio Troxler as Assistant Police Chief of
Buenos Aires
- all former defense attorneys linked to the violently left-wing
Montoneros
. A number of left-wing lawyers were also elected to prominent elected posts across the nation, notably
Oscar Bidegain
(Governor of
Buenos Aires Province
),
Ricardo Obregon Cano
(Governor of
Cordoba Province
) and Alberto Martinez 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 Campora's appointees was one insisted on by his patron,
Juan Peron
:
Jose Lopez Rega
, a former policeman with an interest in the occult close to the Peron household since 1965.
[1]
Lopez 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
Argentine Anticommunist Alliance
(Triple A). Threatened by the
Montoneros
' inroads into student and neighborhood organizations, local governments and the
Peronist Youth
, they began targeting many of Campora's policy makers, some of which began resigning under pressure from Peron, himself. President Campora agreed to have Peronist militants in charge of most security arrangements for Peron's much-anticipated June 20, 1973, return from exile; as the
Alitalia
flight carrying the leader's retinue descended over
Ministro Pistarini International Airport
at
Ezeiza
, however, a scuffle erupted between left and right-wing minders over control of the stage from which Peron would address the nation, leading to a rash of
pitched battles
resulting in perhaps over a hundred deaths and Peron's public, July 13 suggestion that Campora resign.
[1]
The calculating Lopez Rega seized on this to prevail on Vice President
Vicente Solano Lima
and
Senate
President Alejandro Diaz 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 Campora's leftist advisers; it also left the nation's highest office to the President of the
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
(lower house),
Raul Lastiri
, who was, despite being a year older than Lopez Rega, the powerful Social Policy Minister's son-in-law. The cautious Lastiri continued Campora'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 Balbin
(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 Peron commanded enough respect to persuade extremists away from hostilities. Gathering in Buenos Aires' renowned
Teatro Colon
, the
Justicialist Party
struggled to nominate Peron'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 Peron himself) not publicly associated with any one faction within the fractious movement. Opposed to Lopez Rega's suggestion at first, the aging Peron (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 Campora had been elected only six months earlier.
[3]
Candidates
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-
Peron
-
Balbin
-
Manrique
-
Coral
Results
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Presidential
candidate
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Vice Presidential
candidate
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Party
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Votes
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%
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Juan Domingo Peron
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Isabel Peron
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Total Peron - Peron
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7,359,252
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61.86
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Justicialist Liberation Front
(FREJULI)
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6,469,525
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54.38
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Popular Left Front
(FIP)
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889,727
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7.48
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Ricardo Balbin
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Fernando de la Rua
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Radical Civic Union
(UCR)
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2,905,719
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24.42
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Francisco Manrique
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Rafael Martinez Raymonda
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Federalist Popular Alliance
(APF)
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1,450,996
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12.20
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Juan Carlos Coral
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Jose Francisco Paez
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Worker's Socialist Party
(PST)
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181,474
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1.53
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Total
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11,897,441
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100
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Positive votes
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11,897,441
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98.69
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Blank votes
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108,785
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0.90
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Invalid votes
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49,412
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0.41
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Total votes
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12,055,638
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100
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Registered voters/turnout
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14,312,405
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84.23
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Source:
[4]
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References
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