The Sáenz Peña Law () was Law 8871 of

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 List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, sanctioned by the

National Congress ''National Congress'' is a term used in the names of various political parties and legislatures . Political parties *Ethiopia: Oromo National Congress *Guyana: People's National Congress (Guyana) *India: Indian National Congress *Iraq: Iraqi Nati ...

on 10 February 1912, which established the

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, secret and compulsory male

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

though the creation of an electoral list (''Padrón Electoral''). It was approved during the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by ...

of Roque Sáenz Peña, main supporter of the law, and was published in the official government bulletin on 13 February 1912. The right to vote for females was not covered by this law until 1947, during the first presidency of

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 ...

. The "universal" scope of the original law included only native and

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

men but not women and

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

men who were non-citizen immigrants, a very significant portion of the population at the time. Indeed, in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

in 1914, 49% of the population was foreign born. In the entire country, 30% of all residents were foreign born according to the 1914 national census.Tercer censo nacional, tomo I, antecedentes y comentarios (Buenos Aires: Talleres gráficos de L.J. Rosso y Cía, 1916), 205–206.

Origin

Cristina Kirchner con urna electoral de 1916

Sáenz Peña made his intentions about the voting system public during his first speech before the National Congress, in 1910. Interior Minister Indalecio Gómez proposed a reform that left the compilation of the electoral list in the hands of the War Ministry (males over 18 were recorded when called for

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to Ancient history, antiquity and it continues in some countries to th ...

), and the judicial branch was put in charge of dictating who would organize the elections and who would be allowed to vote. That deprived the executive branch of its former ability to write and manipulate the electoral list.

Consequences

The conservatives, who had stayed in power for decades through dubious and fraudulent elections, could not consolidate a political party without popular support.

Hipólito Yrigoyen Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Yrigoyen (; 12 July 1852 – 3 July 1933) was an Argentine politician of the Radical Civic Union and two-time President of Argentina, who served his first term from 1916 to 1922 and his second ...

, the candidate of the Radical Civic Union (''Unión Cívica Radical'', UCR), won the first presidential elections after the new law by a considerable distance, and the UCR became the most powerful political force. As a consequence of the law, all political parties had to reorganize themselves, revising their regulations, creating electoral platforms, opening local seats and periodically gathering in assemblies.

References

*
''Sucesos Históricos Argentinos''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saenz Pena Law History of Argentina (1880–1916) Argentine legislation 1912 in Argentina February 1912 events