1983 Argentine general election

Presidential election
← Sept 1973 30 October 1983 1989 →
600 members of the Electoral College 301 votes needed to win
Registered	17,929,951
Turnout	85.61%
Candidate Raúl Alfonsín Ítalo Luder Party Radical Civic Union Justicialist Party Running mate Víctor Martínez Deolindo Bittel Electoral vote 317 259 States carried 15 +CABA 8 Popular vote 7,724,559 5,944,402 Percentage 51.75% 40.16%
Percentage of votes (left) and electoral votes (right) by province.
President before election Reynaldo Bignone Military ElectedPresident Raúl Alfonsín UCR
Legislative election
← March 1973 30 October 1983 1985 →
254 seats in theChamber of Deputies 128 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	85.61%
Party Vote % Seats Chamber of Deputies Radical Civic Union 47.97% 129 Justicialist Party 38.47% 111 Intransigent Party 2.78% 3 Union of the Democratic Centre 1.70% 2 Blockist Party 0.42% 2 Neuquén People's Movement 0.24% 2 Others 8.4% 5 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Results by province

A general election was held in Argentina on 30 October 1983 and marked the return of constitutional rule following the self-styledNational Reorganization Process dictatorship installed in 1976.^[1] Voters fully chose the president, governors, mayors, and their respective national, province and town legislators; with a turnout of 85.6%.

The government ofIsabel Perón faced several simultaneous crises in 1976. Guerrillas such asMontoneros and thePeople's Revolutionary Army (ERP) were out of control and caused hundreds of deaths each month. In turn, the army counter-attacked with undercover agents, theArgentine Anticommunist Alliance. TheRodrigazo caused an annual inflation rate above 600 percent and growing, which, coupled with union unrest, left the national industry in a virtual halt. Congresswoman Cristina Guzmán also accused Perón of stealing funds from a charity, but the Congress refused to proceed with an impeachment. All this led to the1976 Argentine coup d'état, as most of society perceived the military as the only ones capable of fixing the crises.^[2]

GeneralRoberto Viola was deposed in 1981 byLeopoldo Galtieri, during a "palace coup", which strengthened the political clout of the Agentine Navy. Opposed by the other military factions and fearing to be deposed in a new coup, Galtieri planned an invasion of theFalkland Islands.^[3] The1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands gave a huge popularity boost to the Junta, but it also caused abank panic and undermined the attempts of ministerRoberto Alemann to decrease inflation and stabilize the economy.^[4] This boost turned into a massive decrease after theArgentine surrender in the Falklands War, even more because the local media distorted the events and the surrender came as a complete surprise to the population.^[5]

Six years of intermittent wage freezes, policies adverse to industry and restrictive measures like the Circular 1050 had left GDP per capita at its lowest level since 1968 and real wages lower by around 40%. Given these conditions, the return of some freedoms quickly led to a wave of strikes, including two general strikes led bySaúl Ubaldini of theCGT labor federation (then the largest in South America). Fanning antagonism on the part of hard-liners in the regime, this led AdmiralJorge Anaya (later court-martialed for gross malfeasance in the 1982Falklands War) to announce his candidacy for President in August, becoming the first to do so; he proved to be highly unpopular and Bignone immediately thwarted the move.^{[6][self-published source?]}

Amid growing calls for quicker elections, police brutally repressed a December 16, 1982, demonstration in Buenos Aires' centralPlaza de Mayo, resulting in the death of one protester and Bignone's hopes for an indefinite postponement of elections. Devoting themselves to damage control, the regime began preparing for the transition by shredding evidence of their murder of between 15,000 and 30,000 dissidents (most of which were students, academics and labor union personnel uninvolved in the violence Argentina suffered from 1973 to 1976). Hoping to quiet demands that their whereabouts be known, in February 1983 Buenos Aires Police ChiefRamón Camps publicly recognized the crime and asserted that the "disappeared" were, in fact, dead. Provoking popular indignation, Camps' interview forced President Bignone to cease denying the tragedy and, on April 28, declare a blanket amnesty for those involved (including himself).^{[7][self-published source?]}

Among the first prominent political figures to condemn the amnesty was the leader of the UCR's progressive wing,Raúl Alfonsín, who easily secured his party's nomination during their convention in July. Alfonsín chose as his running mateVíctor Martínez, a more conservative UCR figure fromCórdoba Province. Their traditional opponents, theJusticialist Party, struggled to find candidates for not only the top of the ticket, but for a number of the more important local races, as well. Following conferences that dragged on for two months after the UCR nominated Alfonsín, the Justicialists' left wing (the target of much of the repression before and after the 1976 coup) proved little match for the CGT's influence within the party. They nominated ideological oppositesÍtalo Luder, who had served as acting President during Mrs. Perón's September 1975 sick leave, for President and formerChaco Province GovernorDeolindo Bittel as his running mate; whereas Luder had authorized repression against the left in 1975, Bittel was a populist renowned for his defense ofHabeas Corpus during the subsequent dictatorship.^{[7][self-published source?]}

Constrained by time, Alfonsín focused his strategy on accusing the Justicialists, who had refused to condemn Bignone's military amnesty, of enjoying the dictator's tacit support. Alfonsín enjoyed the valuable support of a number of Argentine intellectuals and artists, including playwrightCarlos Gorostiza, who devised the UCR candidate's slogan,Ahora, Alfonsín ("Now is the Time for Alfonsín").^[8]

Luder, aware of intraparty tensions, limited his campaign ads and rhetoric largely to an evocation of the founder of the Justicialist Party, the lateJuan Perón. Polls gave neither man an edge for the contest, which was scheduled for October 30. A few days for the elections (which a record turnout), the Justicialist candidate for Governor ofBuenos Aires Province,Herminio Iglesias, threw a (premature) "victory rally" in which a coffin draped in the UCR colors was burned before the television cameras.^{[7][self-published source?]}

The bonfire ignited the electorate's bitter memories of Isabel Perón's tenure and helped result in a solid victory for the UCR. The Peronists were given a majority in the Senate and 12 of 22 governorships. The UCR secured only 7 governors, though the nation's largest province, Buenos Aires, would be governed by the UCR'sAlejandro Armendáriz. Alfonsín persuaded Bignone after the elections to advance the inaugural to December 10, 1983.^[8]

• Radical Civic Union (centrist/social democrat): Former DeputyRaúl Alfonsín of Buenos Aires.
• Justicialist Party (populist): Former SenatorÍtalo Luder of Santa Fe.
• Intransigent Party (socialist) : Former GovernorOscar Alende of Buenos Aires.
• Integration and Development Movement (developmentalist): EconomistRogelio Julio Frigerio of Buenos Aires.

• 
  Alfonsín
• 
  Alende
• 
  Frigerio

The Alfonsín-Martínez tandem won the election by 51.75% of votes against the 40.16% of Luder-Bittel tandem.Alfonsín's 51.75% vote percentage would be broken byCristina Fernández de Kirchner's record of 54.11% vote percentage in 2011.

Election ofProvincial Governors
Elected: 22 provincial governors, 24legislative bodies Presidential appointment:Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires and TerritorialGovernor of Tierra del Fuego
Province	Elected	Party		Map
Buenos Aires	Alejandro Armendáriz		Radical Civic Union
Catamarca	Ramón Saadi		Justicialist Party
Chaco	Florencio Tenev		Justicialist Party
Chubut	Atilio Viglione		Radical Civic Union
Córdoba	Eduardo Angeloz		Radical Civic Union
Corrientes	José Antonio Romero Feris		Autonomist Party
Entre Ríos	Sergio Montiel		Radical Civic Union
Formosa	Floro Bogado		Justicialist Party
Jujuy	Carlos Snopek		Justicialist Party
La Pampa	Rubén Marín		Justicialist Party
La Rioja	Carlos Menem		Justicialist Party
Mendoza	Santiago Llaver		Radical Civic Union
Misiones	Ricardo Barrios Arrechea		Radical Civic Union
Neuquén	Felipe Sapag		Neuquén People's Movement
Río Negro	Osvaldo Álvarez Guerrero		Radical Civic Union
Salta	Roberto Romero		Justicialist Party
San Juan	Leopoldo Bravo		Blockist Party
San Luis	Adolfo Rodríguez Saá		Justicialist Party
Santa Cruz	Arturo Puricelli		Justicialist Party
Santa Fe	José María Vernet		Justicialist Party
Santiago del Estero	Carlos Juárez		Justicialist Party
Tucumán	Fernando Riera		Justicialist Party
Buenos Aires City	Julio César Saguier		Radical Civic Union
Tierra del Fuego	Ramón Alberto Trejo Noel		Radical Civic Union

• Burns, Jimmy (1987).The land that lost its heroes: the Falklands, the post-war, and Alfonsín. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd.ISBN 0-7475-0002-9.

• Legislative elections in Argentina
• 1983 elections in Argentina
• Presidency of Raúl Alfonsín
• Presidential elections in Argentina
• Democratization

• Articles with Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter
• Elections using electoral votes
• All articles with self-published sources
• Articles with self-published sources from September 2025
• Articles with self-published sources from October 2025