Arturo Umberto Illia - Election As President of Argentina

Election As President of Argentina

After the fall of the populist government of Juan Perón in 1955, a long period of political instability took over Argentina. During this period, the army would have a large influence over the politics of the country, and, even though elections would still take place, these would be marked by a considerable lack of legitimacy, since Peronism (which was supported by a great portion of the Argentine citizenry) would be banned during this period.

From 1955 to 1963 the country had five presidents, of which only one was democratically elected: Arturo Frondizi, who governed the country from May 1, 1958, until his March 29, 1962, overthrow by a military coup. Frondizi's removal was precipitated by his lifting the ban on Peronism ahead of the March 1962 mid-term elections. Among those also affected was Illia, who, though a UCR candidate, was thus barred from office following his election as Governor of Córdoba.

After the fall of Frondizi, the President of the Senate, José María Guido, became interim President of the country, starting a process of 'normalization' which would eventually lead to new elections, on July 7, 1963.

The 1963 elections were made possible by support from the moderate, "Blue" faction of the Argentine military, led by the Head of the Joint Chiefs, General Juan Carlos Onganía and by the Internal Affairs Minister, General Osiris Villegas. Together, they exercised control over Guido's puppet presidency – though they shared his commitment to elections. The UCR, out of power since Yrigoyen's 1930 overthrow, had been divided since their contentious 1956 convention into the mainstream "People's UCR" (UCRP) and the center-left UCRI. The leader of the UCRP, Ricardo Balbín, withdrew his name from the March 10 nominating convention and instead supported a less conservative, less anti-Peronist choice, and the party nominated Dr. Illia for President and Entre Ríos Province lawyer Carlos Perette as his running-mate.

A military ban on the Popular Front organized by Perón and Frondizi led to their joint call for blank voting as a means of protest. The moderately anti-Peronist UCRP was also hampered by former President Pedro Aramburu's candidacy, which made opposition to Perón central to its platform. Ultimately, however, Illia would win, and despite carrying only a fourth of the vote, he also "defeated" the blank vote option (a proxy for the Perón vote) by 4 points.

The results were:

• People's Radical Civic Union (Arturo Illia – Carlos Perette): 2,441,000
• Intransigent Radical Civic Union (Oscar Alende – Celestino Gelsi): 1,593,000
• UDELPA-PDP alliance (General Pedro Aramburu – Horacio Thedy): 1,346,000
• Others: 2,272,000
• Blank and invalid votes: 2,058,000

In the electoral college on July 31, 1963, the Illia-Perette ticket obtained 169 votes out of 476 on the first round of voting (70 short of an absolute majority), but the support of three centrist parties on the second round gave them 270 votes, thus formalizing their election.