Presidential elections were held in Guatemala between 17 and 19 December 1944. Dieter Nohlen (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p323 The

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

had overthrown

Jorge Ubico Jorge Ubico Castañeda (10 November 1878 – 14 June 1946), nicknamed Number Five or also Central America's Napoleon, was a Guatemalan dictator. A general in the Guatemalan army, he was elected to the presidency in 1931, in an election where ...

, the American-backed dictator, after which a junta composed of

Francisco Javier Arana Francisco Javier Arana Castro (; 3 December 1905 – 18 July 1949) was a Guatemalan military leader and one of the three members of the revolutionary junta that ruled Guatemala from 20 October 1944 to 15 March 1945 during the early part of the ...

Jacobo Árbenz Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (; 14 September 191327 January 1971) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th President of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950, and the second democratical ...

and

Jorge Toriello Jorge Toriello Garrido (23 April 1908 – 16 June 1998) was one of the three leaders of the first government that ruled Guatemala from 20 October 1944 to 15 March 1945 as part of the October Revolution. Toriello Garrido, a civilian, led the gover ...

took power, and quickly announced presidential elections, as well as elections for a constitutional assembly. The subsequent elections were broadly considered free and fair,Richard H. Immerman, (1982) ''The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention'', p45 although only literate men were given the vote.Gleijeses, p36 Unlike in similar historical situations, none of the junta members stood for election. The front-runner was the philosophically conservative University professor

Juan José Arévalo Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (10 September 1904 – 8 October 1990) was a Guatemalan professor of philosophy who became Guatemala's first democratically elected president in 1945. He was elected following a popular uprising against the United ...

, of the

National Renovation Party The National Renovation Party (Spanish: ''Partido Renovación Nacional'', PRN) was a reformist and progressive political party in Guatemala that was supportive of the government of Jacobo Arbenz. The PRN was founded by a group of the young revolu ...

. His closest challenger was

Adrián Recinos Adrián Recinos (1886–1962) was a Guatemalan historian, essayist, Mayanist scholar and translator, and diplomat. Recinos was a student of national history, especially the Maya civilization and the ancient history of the K'iche' and Kaqchikel peo ...

, whose campaign included a number of individuals identified with the Ubico regime. The ballots were tallied on 19 December and Arévalo won in a landslide with 86.25% of the vote, receiving more than four times as many votes as the other candidates combined. The Constitutional Assembly elections took place on 28–30 December, with the United Front of Arevalist Parties winning 50 of the 65 seats.

Results

References

Bibliography

*Villagrán Kramer, Francisco. Biografía política de Guatemala: años de guerra y años de paz. FLACSO-Guatemala, 2004. *Political handbook of the world 1946. New York, 1945. *Rodríguez de Ita, Guadalupe. 2003. La participación política en la primavera guatemalteca: una aproximación a la historia de los partidos durante el periodo 1944-1954. México: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. *El estado y los partidos politicos en Guatemala, 1944-1951. by José Campang Chang Published in 1992, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ( uatemala *Castillo, R. Geografía Electoral de Guatemala, Guatemala, INCEP, 1972. {{Guatemalan elections Presidential elections in Guatemala Guatemala 1944 in Guatemala Guatemalan Revolution