1895 Salvadoran presidential election

None January 2022 May 2022 1895 Salvadoran presidential election El Salvador 1875 presidential 1891 Salvadoran presidential election 1891 January 1895 1899 Salvadoran presidential election 1899 no Rafael A. Gutierrez.jpg 800000 Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez Liberal/Military 61,080 99.85% President Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez Liberal/Military Elected President Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez Liberal/Military Presidential elections were held in El Salvador in January 1895. General Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez, who was serving as the country's provisional president during the election, ran unopposed and was elected with over 99 percent of the vote. Concurrent vice presidential elections were held, during which, Prudencio Alfaro defeated Carlos Meléndez and four minor candidates. Campaign Presidential elections were scheduled to be held in January 1895 following the Revolution of the 44 which overthrew President Carlos Ezeta and Vice President Antonio Ezeta in June 1894.Ching 1997 175–176 General Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez, who led the revolution and succeeded Carlos as provisional president,Casa Presidencial ran for president unopposed. Meanwhile, the vice presidential election was contested by Prudencio Alfaro and Carlos Meléndez, both of whom were also leaders of the 1894 revolution. Gutiérrez did not endorse either candidate and allowed them to compete for the vice presidency. General Estanislao Pérez, General Tomás Regalado, and two other minor candidates also participated in the vice presidential election.Ching 1997 175 & 177Diario Oficial 1895 161 All men were eligible to vote in the election.Krennerich 2005 270 Gutiérrez, Alfaro, Meléndez, and Regalado were all liberals.White 1973 87–88 & 91 However, none of the candidates are known to have run on ideological platforms or proper policy proposals.Ching 2014 42 Meléndez's campaign was supported by the Nueva San Salvador-based newspaper La Verdad.Ching 2014 40 Results In the presidential election, Gutiérrez received 61,080 votes with only 91 votes against.Ching 1997 175 In the vice presidential election, Alfaro and Meléndez both sought to gain a competitive advantage over the other by ensuring that their allied municipal leaders would be in control of polling stations in the country's 248 municipalities.Ching 1997 175–177 In 176 of the 248 municipalities, the winning candidate won with over 95 percent of the vote, due to the candidates seeking to install allies in charge of polling stations. Additionally, in 96 of the municipalities, the winning candidate won unanimously.Ching 1997 177 Alfaro held an advantage in seven departments—Ahuachapán, La Paz, La Unión, Morazán, San Miguel, Sonsonate, and Usulután—while Meléndez held an advantage in two—Cabañas and San Vicente. Both candidates won by large margins in the departments where they held massive influence. Neither candidate had an outright advantage in the remaining five departments—Chalatenango, Cuscatlán, La Libertad, San Salvador, and Santa Ana—and the results across those departments were not as lopsided.Ching 1997 177–178 Ultimately, Alfaro was elected vice president with 38,006 votes; Meléndez came in second place with 18,792 votes, and the other four candidates earned around 4,000 votes combined.Ching 1997 175 Voter turnout was around 40%.Ching 2014 41 Historian Erik Ching described monopolizing voting at polling stations as "the golden rule of politics in El Salvador" and that the 1895 vice presidential election exemplified that.Ching 1997 178 He also described Gutiérrez's role in the election as that of an "undisputed leader who kept electoral passions in check".Ching 1997 245 President Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez Liberal/Military 61080 #800000 Against 91 Ching 1997, p. 175 Vice president Prudencio Alfaro Liberal 38006 #800000 Carlos Meléndez Liberal 18792 #800000 Other candidates 4000 Ching 1997, p. 175 Results by department The following table displays the number of votes each candidate received from each of the country's 14 departments. The candidate with the most votes in a department is highlighted in #DDD gray. Results are not complete, and one candidate is not displayed. Department Alfaro Meléndez Pérez Regalado Hurtado Votes Votes Votes Votes Votes Ahuachapán 3,647 167 Cabañas Chalatenango 4,278 2,759 CuscatlánAccording to Erik Ching, the results of the 1895 vice presidential election in Cuscatlán was 2,679 votes for Meléndez and 2,632 votes for Alfaro.Ching 1997 507 2,635 2,634 La Libertad 1,001 2,752 472 La Paz 3,334 408 La Unión Morazán San Miguel San Salvador 4,543 2,696 Santa Ana 1,210 1,901 432 San Vicente 260 3,170 Sonsonate 3,645 188 590 177 Usulután 3,096 270 TotalChing 1997 175 38,006 18,792 ≈4,000 Source: Diario Oficial 1895, pp. 161–162 Aftermath Meléndez's supporters at La Verdad subsequently launched a public relations campaign, claiming in its pages that the elections had been fraudulent. Alfaro and Gutiérrez's supporters responded in the government newspaper Diario Oficial, accusing La Verdad of being a "clerical, Catholic paper" opposed to liberalism, and publishing results showing that multiple candidates received votes. They attributed Gutiérrez's unanimous victory to widespread public support for the revolution and the provisional government.Ching 2014 41-42 Gutiérrez and Alfaro both assumed office on 1 March 1895.Casa Presidencial In 1898, Regaldo overthrew the government due to Gutiérrez's plans to rig the upcoming presidential election to allow him to remain in office.Ching 2014 173 Alfaro, Gutiérrez, and Meléndez all unsuccessfully ran for president in 1907,Diario Oficial 1907 354 and that same year, Alfaro led a failed war against the Salvadoran government.Cruz Zepeda Peña 2006 141-142 In 1913, Meléndez finally became president, beginning a political dynasty that would rule the country for the next thirteen years.Ching 2014 158 Notes References Citations 22em Bibliography 35em yes Ching Erik K. 1997 From Clientelism to Militarism: The State, Politics and Authoritarianism in El Salvador, 1840–1940 https://www.proquest.com/docview/304330235 en Santa Barbara, California University of California, Santa Barbara 39326756 28 February 2024 304330235 Ching Erik K. 2014 Authoritarian El Salvador: Politics and Origins of the Military Regimes, 1880-1940 https://books.google.com/books/about/Authoritarian_El_Salvador.html?id=ZYQFDgAAQBAJ Notre Dame, Indiana University of Notre Dame Press 978-0-268-02375-1 2026-06-20 Cruz Zepeda Peña Ciro Ciro Cruz Zepeda 2006 Historia del Órgano Legislativo de la República de El Salvador History of the Legislative Organ of the Republic of El Salvador https://www.asamblea.gob.sv/sites/default/files/2017-12/Tomo_II_Historia_AsambleaLegislativa.pdf dead https://web.archive.org/web/20200214102959/https://www.asamblea.gob.sv/sites/default/files/2017-12/Tomo_II_Historia_AsambleaLegislativa.pdf 2020-02-14 es Legislative Assembly of El Salvador 2026-06-21 http://abaco.uca.edu.sv/acervo/Diario_Oficial/1907/1907-02.pdf Cuadro Demonstrativo de los Votos Emitidos para Presidente y Vice Presidente de la República en el Período de 1907 a 1911 Demonstrative Table of the Votes Cast for President and Vice President of the Republic for the Period of 1907 to 1911 es 26 February 1907 Diario Oficial 2026-06-21 62 48 354 https://web.archive.org/web/20180406164241/http://abaco.uca.edu.sv/acervo/Diario_Oficial/1907/1907-02.pdf 6 April 2018 dead Diario Oficial 1907 http://www.casapres.gob.sv/presidentes/pres/rguitierres1894.htm Presidentes de El Salvador – General Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez Presidents of El Salvador – General Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez es 25 March 2021 Government of El Salvador Casa Presidencial https://web.archive.org/web/20090302084939/http://www.casapres.gob.sv/presidentes/pres/rguitierres1894.htm 2 March 2009 Casa Presidencial Krennerich Michael El Salvador 2005 Nohlen Dieter Dieter Nohlen Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook Volume 1: North America, Central America, and the Caribbean https://books.google.com/books?id=-xZREAAAQBAJ en Oxford, United Kingdom Oxford University Press 270–299 9780191557934 58051010 13 October 2024 http://abaco.uca.edu.sv/acervo/Diario_Oficial/1895/1895-01.pdf Sección Editorial: Las Elecciones a Altos Poderes Editorial Section: The Elections to High Powers es 30 January 1895 Diario Oficial 20 October 2024 38 26 161–162 https://web.archive.org/web/20191024013303/http://abaco.uca.edu.sv/acervo/Diario_Oficial/1895/1895-01.pdf 24 October 2019 dead Diario Oficial 1895 White Alastair 1973 El Salvador https://archive.org/details/elsalvador0000whit/mode/2up en Nations of the Modern World Ernest Benn Limited London and Tonbridge 0510395236 73175341 1391406624 1 December 2025 Further reading https://library.ucsd.edu/research-and-collections/collections/notable-collections/latin-american-elections-statistics/El%20Salvador/elections-and-events-1850-1899.html Elections and Events 1850–1899 25 March 2021 en University of California, San Diego 23 March 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210323211303/https://library.ucsd.edu/research-and-collections/collections/notable-collections/latin-american-elections-statistics/El%20Salvador/elections-and-events-1850-1899.html dead El Salvador Politics Category:1895 in El Salvador El Salvador Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results Category:Presidential elections in El Salvador Category:Single-candidate presidential elections in El Salvador Category:Vice presidential elections Category:January 1895 in North America