Argentine legislative election, 1987

The Argentine legislative elections of 1987 were held on 6 September. Voters chose their legislators and governors and, with a turnout of 83.6%, it produced the following results:

Argentine Congress

Party/Electoral Alliance	Lower House Seats	Vote Percentage
Radical Civic Union	117	38.6%
Justicialist Party	106	42.9%
UCeDé	7	6.0%
Intransigent Party	5	2.1%
Autonomist-Liberal Pact (Corrientes Province)	4	1.1%
Christian Democratic Party	3	0.3%
Neuquino People's Movement (Neuquén Province)	2	0.4%
Salta Renewal Party	2	0.5%
Democratic Progressive Party	1	1.4%
Integration and Development Movement	1	1.0%
Socialist Unity	1	1.5%
Other regional parties	8	4.2%
Invalid votes		5.3%
Total seats	257

^[1]

^[2]

Background

Governor Alejandro Armendáriz of the paramount Province of Buenos Aires was defeated by...

Antonio Cafiero, creating a new frontrunner for the 1989 presidential race and depriving the President of a key ally.

The domestic and international esteem President Raúl Alfonsín earned for advancing the Trial of the Juntas suffered in December 1986, when on his initiative, Congress passed the Full Stop Law, which limited the civil trials against roughly 300 officers implicated in the 1976-79 Dirty War against dissidents to those indicted within 60 days of the law's passage, a tall order given the reluctance of many victims and witnesses to testify. These concessions did not placate hard-liners in the Argentine military who, though in a minority, put Argentina's hard-earned Democracy at risk in April 1987, when a group identified as Carapintadas ("painted faces," from their use of camouflage paint) loyal to Army Major Aldo Rico staged a mutiny of the important Army training base of Campo de Mayo during the Easter weekend. Negotiating in person with the rebels after four days of national suspense, Alfonsín secured their surrender, memorably announcing that "the house is in order."^[3]

The goodwill this earned Alfonsín and his centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR) began to erode when in June, Congress passed Alfonsín's Law of Due Obedience, granting immunity to officers implicated in crimes against humanity on the basis of "due obedience." This law, condemned by Amnesty International, among others, effectively halted most remaining prosecutions of Dirty War criminals.^[3]

The economy, too, became increasingly challenging. The 1985 Austral Plan had helped lead to a recovery in 1986; but frequent wage freezes ordered by the Economy Minister, Juan Sourrouille, kept real wages from rising, and GDP remained below its 1980 peak, in any case. A sharp fall in global commodity prices had evaporated the nation's US$4 billion trade surplus by 1987, and foreign debt interest payments could only be financed with more public debt, helping lead to a sudden halving of the value of the Argentine austral after May. Inflation (4% a month in May) rose to 14% in August, and though GDP grew modestly, real wages slid by around 8%.^[4]^[5]

Election night, September 6, dealt Alfonsín's UCR its sharpest blow among the nation's governors. The UCR lost 5 of its 7 governors elected in 1983, including the nation's most important: Governor Alejandro Armendáriz of the Province of Buenos Aires (home to 38% of Argentines). Armendáriz had been a key supporter of the President's Project Patagonia, which envisaged the transfer of the nation's capital from Buenos Aires to Viedma for the sake of decentralization. The project, which had been passed by the Lower House of Congress and had even received Pope John Paul II's personal blessing during an April 1987 state visit, had no future without an absolute UCR majority in the Lower House (the Senate - not in play in 1987 - was dominated by the Justicialist Party).^[3]

The loss of 13 UCR Congressmen benefited smaller, issue-oriented parties more than it did the Justicialists (whose gains were primarily among the governors, going from 12 to 17). The first to benefit in Congress was the conservative Union of the Democratic Centre (UCeDé), which ran on a free market platform calling for privatizations of an array of State enterprises, responsible for nearly half the nation's goods and services. These companies' losses, led by the Argentine Railways', were blamed by the UCeDé's leader, Alvaro Alsogaray, for the public sector cash flow problem and resulting financial instability (while disregarding the role of foreign debt interest payments). The UCeDé's gain of 4 Congressmen in these elections, though menial, portended the policy of "surgery without anesthetic" adopted by national policy makers in the 1990s.

Elections and referendums in Argentina

Presidential elections	1854 1860 1862 1868 1874 1880 1886 1892 1898 1904 1910 1916 1922 1928 1931 1937 1946 1951 1958 1963 1973 (Mar) 1973 (Sep) 1983 1989 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019

Parliamentary elections	1854 1856 1858 1860 1862 1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1931 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1946 1948 (Mar) 1948 (Dec) 1951 1954 1957 1958 1960 1962 1963 1965 1973 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1994 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019

Provincial elections	1854 1856 1858 1860 1862 1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1931 1934 1936 1937 1938 1940 1942 1946 1948 1951 1954 1957 1958 1960 1962 1963 1965 1973 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2005 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2019

Referendums	1984

References

↑ Nohlen, Dieter. Elections in the Americas. Oxford University Press, 2005.
↑ Andy Tow's Electoral Atlas of Argentina
1 2 3 Todo Argentina: 1987 (Spanish)
↑ INDEC
↑ Monografías

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