Guatemalan general election, 1944

A presidential election was held in Guatemala on 17–19 December 1944. The October Revolution of 1944 had overthrown Jorge Ubico, the U.S. backed dictator of Guatemala.[1] A junta composed of Francisco Javier Arana, Jacobo Árbenz and Jorge Toriello took power, and quickly announced presidential elections, as well as elections for a constituent assembly.[2] The subsequent elections took place in December 1944, and were broadly considered free and fair,[3] although only literate men were given the vote.[4] Unlike in similar historical situations, none of the junta members stood for election.[3] The front-runner was the philosophically conservative University professor Juan José Arévalo, of the Renovación Nacional. Arévalo's closest challenger was Adrián Recinos, whose campaign included a number of individuals identified with the Ubico regime.[3] The ballots were tallied on 19 December 1944, and Arévalo won in a landslide, receiving more than four times as many ballots as the other candidates combined.[3]

Presidential election results

Candidate Party/Alliance Votes %
Juan José Arévalo Bermejo FUPA 255,660 86.25%
Adrián Recinos FND/PDC 20,949 7.07%
Manuel María Herrera PTRD 11,062 3.73%
Guillermo Flores Avendaño PSD 8,230 2.78%
Teófilo Díaz Medrano PCD 342 0.12%
Bernardo Alvarado Tello FPL 115 0.04%
Ovidio Pivaral PD 22 0.01%
Francisco Javier Arana FPL 12 0.001%
Clemente Marroquín Rojas PCN 5 0.001%
José Gregorio Díaz PAN 5 0.001%
Luis Cardoza y Aragón ?? 3 0.001%
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes ?? 2 0.001%
Humberto Robles ?? 2 0.001%
Jorge Toriello Garrido UC 2 0.001%
Julio Bianchi PCA 1 0.001%
Manuel Galich FPL 1 0.001%
Eugenio Silva Peña PSD 1 0.001%
Total valid votes 296,414 100%
Spoilt and invalid votes 6.,042 1.99%
Total votes/Turnout 302,456 97.57%
Registered voters 310,000
Population 2,390,000

FUPA – United Front of Arevalist Parties (The FUPA was a political electoral front. The principal partners in the front were the Popular Liberation Front (FPL) and the National Renovation Party (PRN)).

FND – National Democratic Front

PDC – Central Democratic Party

PTRD – Workers Republican-Democratic Party

PSD – Social Democratic Party

PD – Democratic Party

PCN – National Accord Party

PAN – Nationalist Action Party

UC – Civic Union

PCA – Central-American party

PCD – Democratic Constitutionalist Party

Notes and references

Notes
  1. ↑ Streeter 2000, pp. 12-13.
  2. ↑ Gleijeses 1991, pp. 28–29.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Immerman 1982, pp. 45–45.
  4. ↑ Gleijeses 1991, p. 36.
Sources
  • Gleijeses, Piero (1991). Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02556-8.
  • Immerman, Richard H. (1982). The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  • Streeter, Stephen M. (2000). Managing the Counterrevolution: The United States and Guatemala, 1954-1961. Ohio University Press. ISBN 9780896802155.

Further reading

  • Villagrán Kramer, Francisco. Biografía política de Guatemala: años de guerra y años de paz. FLACSO-Guatemala, 2004.
  • Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook Volume 1. North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Edited by Dieter Nohlen. 2005.
  • 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 ([Guatemala])
  • Castillo, R. Geografía Electoral de Guatemala, Guatemala, INCEP, 1972.
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