Presidential elections were held in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

between 17 and 19 December 1944.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

(2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p323 The

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

had overthrown

Jorge Ubico Jorge Ubico Castañeda (10 November 1878 – 14 June 1946), nicknamed Number Five or also Central America's Napoleon, was a Guatemalan military officer, politician, and dictator who served as the president of Guatemala from 1931 to 1944. A ge ...

, the American-backed dictator, after which a junta composed of

Francisco Javier Arana Francisco Javier Arana Castro (; 3 December 1905 – 18 July 1949) was a Guatemalan military leader and one of the three members of the revolutionary junta that ruled Guatemala from 20 October 1944 to 15 March 1945 during the early part of th ...

Jacobo Árbenz Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (; 14 September 191327 January 1971) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th president of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950, before he became the secon ...

and Jorge Toriello took power, and quickly announced presidential elections, as well as elections for a constitutional assembly. The subsequent elections were broadly considered free and fair,Richard H. Immerman, (1982) ''The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention'', p45 although only literate men were given the vote.Gleijeses, p36 Unlike in similar historical situations, none of the junta members stood for election. The front-runner was the university professor

Juan José Arévalo Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (10 September 1904 – 8 October 1990) was a Guatemalan statesman and professor of philosophy who became Guatemala's first democratically elected president in 1945. He was elected following a popular uprising again ...

, nominated by the

National Renovation Party The National Renovation Party (, PRN) was a reformist and progressive political party in Guatemala that was supportive of the government of Jacobo Arbenz. The PRN was founded by a group of the young revolutionaries on 1 July 1944, following the o ...

. His closest challenger was

Adrián Recinos Adrián Recinos (1886–1962) was a Guatemalan historian, essayist, Mayanist scholar and translator, and diplomat. Recinos was a student of national history, especially the Maya civilization and the ancient history of the K'iche' and Kaqchikel p ...

, whose campaign included a number of individuals identified with the Ubico regime. The ballots were tallied on 19 December and Arévalo won in a landslide with 86.25% of the vote, receiving more than four times as many votes as the other candidates combined. The Constitutional Assembly elections took place on 28–30 December, with the United Front of Arevalist Parties winning 50 of the 65 seats.

Results

References

Bibliography

*Villagrán Kramer, Francisco. Biografía política de Guatemala: años de guerra y años de paz. FLACSO-Guatemala, 2004. *Political handbook of the world 1946. New York, 1945. *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 ( uatemala *Castillo, R. Geografía Electoral de Guatemala, Guatemala, INCEP, 1972. {{Guatemalan elections Presidential elections in Guatemala

Presidential Guatemalan Revolution December 1944 in North America