The Argentine General election of 1954 was held on 25 April. Voters chose both their legislators and the

Vice-President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

; with a turnout of 85%.

Background

The death of his wife and closest advisor,

Evita Evita may refer to: Arts * Evita (1996 film), ''Evita'' (1996 film), a 1996 American musical drama film based on the 1976 concept album of the same name * Evita (2008 film), ''Evita'' (2008 film), a documentary about Eva Péron * Evita (album), ''E ...

, stuck President

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected P ...

amid serious difficulties. A severe drought in 1952 and years of pessimism in Argentina's important agrarian sector depleted

foreign reserve Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, influence ...

s and forced Perón to curtail public lending and spending programs. The recession (and a

bumper crop In agriculture, a bumper crop is a crop that has yielded an unusually productive harvest. The word "bumper" in this context comes from a usage that means "something unusually large", which is where this term comes from. Though very productive har ...

) did, however, allow

Central Bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central ba ...

reserves to recover and brought inflation (50% in 1951) to single digits. Controversy surrounding Perón's in-laws and political violence both by and against his

Peronist Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of Ar ...

movement had dogged the president in the first half of 1953, and he took the opportunity of upcoming legislative polls to test his popularity. The

Argentine Constitution The Constitution of the Argentine Nation ( es, Constitución de la Nación Argentina) is the basic governing document of Argentina, and the primary source of existing law in Argentina. Its first version was written in 1853 by a constitutional ...

did not require it at the time, but the President announced a special election to replace the late Vice President, Hortensio Quijano. Dr. Quijano had died on April 3, 1952, two months and one day before his term was to have ended on June 4, 1952. Perón nominated Senator Alberto Teisaire as the candidate for the then named Partido Peronista (Peronist Party). Teisaire was familiar to Perón from the 1943

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

; the former

rear admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

had helped retain the normally restive

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

's support for the populist leader before and after Perón's 1946 election and, after eight years in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, he remained close to the military - a far from trivial consideration. In the opposition since 15 years before Perón took office, the centrist UCR had been burdened by

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

and sundry forms of harassment since 1930, and 1953 had been marked by the jailing of most of their leaders. Among the few prominent figures in the party available to run for the vice-presidency was Crisólogo Larralde. Larralde had opposed the UCR's 1945 alliance with conservatives and socialists against Perón, and was a well-known figure in the UCR's dissident, pro-Perón "Renewal Group." This did not, however, ease the UCR's restriction to access to most mass media, and the party was defeated by similar numbers to their 1951 loss.Todo Argentina: 1954

Results

Vice president

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

Notes

{{Argentine elections

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

April 1954 events in South America