General elections were held in Argentina on 14 May 1989. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 85%, Carlos Menem won the presidency, and the Peronist Justicialist Party won the control of both houses of Congress. This was the last presidential election in which the president was elected by the electoral college.

Background Inheriting a difficult legacy from his military predecessors, President Raúl Alfonsín's tenure had been practically defined by the foreign debt Argentina's last dictatorship left behind. Signs of unraveling in Alfonsín's 1985 Austral Plan for economic stabilization cost his centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR) its majorities in the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of Congress) and among the nation's 22 governorships in the September 1987 mid-term elections. Facing a restive armed forces opposed to trials against past human rights abuses and mounting inflation, the president brought elections forward five months, now scheduled for May 14, 1989. Both major parties held national conventions in May 1988. The UCR nominated Córdoba Governor Eduardo Angeloz, a safe, centrist choice and the most prominent UCR figure not closely tied to the unpopular President Alfonsín. In an upset, however, Carlos Menem, governor of the remote and thinly populated La Rioja Province, wrested the Justicialist Party nomination from the odds-on candidate, Buenos Aires Province Governor Antonio Cafiero, a policy maker close to the Justicialists' founder, the late Juan Perón. Cafiero's defeat resulted largely from CGT trade union opposition to his Peronist Renewal faction; Alfonsín's top political adviser, Interior Minister Enrique Nosiglia, in turn saw Menem's flamboyance as an opportunity for the struggling UCR.

The Justicialists (Peronists) took a sizable lead in polling early on, however, even as nearly half the voters remained undecided. Hoping to translate this into a UCR victory over the outspoken and eccentric Menem, President Alfonsín enacted an August 1988 "Springtime Plan" in a bid for lower inflation (then running at 27% monthly). The plan, criticized as a rehashed "Austral Plan" by the CGT, called for budget cuts and renewed wage freezes - policies they blamed for sliding living standards. Initially successful, a record drought late in the year buffeted critical export earnings and led to rolling blackouts, dissipating any gains Angeloz might have made from the "relief" of 6% monthly inflation.

A perennial third-party candidate, conservative economist Álvaro Alsogaray, made gains following the January 1989 assault by Trotskyist militants on the La Tablada Barracks, west of Buenos Aires. Twice minister of the economy and remembered for his belief that the economy must go through "winter," the unpopular Alsogaray ran on a free market platform, calling for mass privatizations and deep cuts in social spending (amid 30% poverty). Angeloz took the controversial decision of including social spending cuts in the UCR platform, as well, earning the right-wing Federal Party's endorsement, but alienating many others (particularly pensioners, among whom Alfonsín had won decisively in 1983). The largely civil campaign became increasingly a debate between the Justicialist nominee and the president, himself; Angeloz, the UCR nominee, remained "presidential" during the frequent exchanges of innuendo between Alfonsín and Menem.

Following a sharp drop in Central Bank reserves, the austral fell around 29% to the U.S. dollar in heavy trading on "black Tuesday," February 7. The sudden drop in the austral's value threatened the nation's tenuous financial stability and, later that month, the World Bank recalled a large tranche of a loan package agreed on in 1988, sending the austral into a tailspin: trading at 17 to the dollar in January, the dollar quoted at over 100 australes by election day, May 14. Inflation, which had been held to the 5-10% monthly range as late as February, rose to 78.5% in May, shattering records and leading to a landslide victory for the Peronists. Polling revealed that economic anxieties were paramount among two-thirds of voters and Menem won in 19 of 22 provinces, while losing in the traditionally anti-Peronist Federal District (Buenos Aires).

The nation's finances did not stabilize after the election, as hoped. The austral halved to the dollar next week, alone, and on May 29, riots broke out in the poorer outskirts of a number of cities. Having declared his intention to stay on until inaugural day, December 10, these events and spiraling financial chaos led Alfonsín to transfer power to President-elect Menem five months early, on July 8. When Menem accepted the presidential sash from Alfonsín, it marked the first time since 1916 that an incumbent government peacefully transferred power to the opposition.Todo Argentina

Presidential candidates Justicialist Party (Peronist, populist): Governor Carlos Menem of La Rioja Province Radical Civic Union (Center-left, social liberal): Governor Eduardo Angeloz of Córdoba Province Union of the Democratic Centre (Center-right, conservative liberal): Deputy Álvaro Alsogaray of the City of Buenos Aires

Results President

Chamber of Deputies

By province ProvinceFREJUPOUCRCenter AllianceCFIOthers Votes % Seats Votes % Seats Votes % Seats Votes % Seats Votes % SeatsBuenos Aires3,042,08048.3719 1,655,591 26.3210 630,163 10.024 190,445 3.03— 770,828 12.252Buenos Aires City641,76731.515 580,197 28.494 449,822 22.093 146,540 7.191 218,392 10.73—Catamarca68,09854.232 51,285 40.841 1,257 1.00———— 4,924 3.92—Chaco190,60549.172 133,986 34.562 6,713 1.73— 1,651 0.43— 54,685 14.10—Chubut54,58338.481 39,815 28.071 9,681 6.82— 25,516 17.99— 12,257 8.64—Córdoba 664,858 43.374669,33843.675 120,759 7.88———— 77,905 5.08—Corrientes 120,807 32.581 89,798 24.221151,61340.891 3,371 0.91— 5,184 1.40—Entre Ríos283,51750.493 208,634 37.152 46,864 8.34———— 22,567 4.02—Formosa93,94958.461 63,155 39.301 2,000 1.24———— 1,589 0.99—Jujuy84,26641.752 31,687 15.70— 2,734 1.35— 41,724 20.671 41,407 20.52—La Pampa73,41351.112 53,144 37.001 7,488 5.21— 2,799 1.95— 6,802 4.73—La Rioja69,06267.142 29,406 28.59— 1,315 1.28— 16 0.02— 3,062 2.97—Mendoza291,67342.042 203,392 29.312 141,237 20.361 3,494 0.50— 54,048 7.79—Misiones162,36152.212 115,401 37.111 20,080 6.46— 7,158 2.30— 5,965 1.92—Neuquén54,34736.471 35,600 23.891 4,815 3.23———— 54,276 36.421Río Negro85,12942.951 71,968 36.311 9,799 4.94———— 31,322 15.80—Salta154,11642.661 91,225 25.251 7,647 2.12— 88,294 24.441 20,005 5.54—San Juan 64,740 24.471 48,174 18.211 18,749 7.09————132,85750.231San Luis66,33748.342 52,564 38.301 5,201 3.79———— 13,129 9.57—Santa Cruz32,93352.942 23,964 38.521 3,102 4.99———— 2,207 3.55—Santa Fe740,53848.015 438,268 28.413 144,393 9.361 14,494 0.94— 204,834 13.28—Santiago del Estero195,47165.492 87,920 29.461 2,394 0.80— 3,219 1.08— 9,469 3.17—Tierra del Fuego10,98939.511 8,444 30.361 2,023 7.27— 318 1.14— 6,039 21.72—Tucumán214,84939.472 82,879 15.23— 6,422 1.18— 36,041 6.62— 204,089 37.502 Total 7,460,488 44.82 66 4,865,835 29.23 42 1,796,271 10.79 10 565,080 3.39 3 1,957,842 11.77 6

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