Nicaraguan general election, 1924

A general elections were held in Nicaragua to elect a President, half of the Deputies and 1/3 the of the Senators on 5 October 1924.

When the President Diego Manuel Chamorro died in office on 12 October 1923 Vice-President Bartolomé Martínez, a representative of the anti-Chamorrista wing of the Conservative faction, took over the office. Martínez bitterly opposed Emiliano Chamorro Vargas’s desire to return to the presidency. Martínez thus turned to the Liberals to forge a coalition that might thwart the caudillo’s fond hopes for a second presidential term”. ^[1]

“Bartolomé Martínez, although selected as Vice President by the Diego Manuel Chamorro-dominated Conservative convention of 1920, was ambitious to continue his control of the Administration. His plans ran counter to those of Gen. Emiliano Chamorro Vargas and the Granada Conservatives, who wanted to regain the leadership lost through the death of President Diego Manuel Chamorro. The attempts of the Conservative leaders to agree to a national party in which the Liberals would participate were unsuccessful. The Conservative convention, which was again dominated by General Emiliano Chamorro Vargas, nominated him for the Presidency. The Liberal Party, which met shortly afterwards, likewise split into two factions. The larger, under the party name of Liberal Nationalists, nominated Juan Bautista Sacasa; the smaller, under the party name of Liberal Republican, nominated Luís Corea. In the meantime President Martínez had developed a new party for the purpose of bringing about his own nomination”. ^[2]

To prevent his arch-rival Emiliano Chamorro Vargas, now a lawful candidate, from garnering the votes, Bartolomé Martínez formed a coalition party of relative moderates, the Conservative Republicans. For the offices of president and vice president, they nominated the Conservative Carlos José Solórzano and the Liberal Dr. Juan Bautista Sacasa. ^[3]

“Just before the election, Bartolomé Martínez issued decrees making changes in the personnel of the electoral boards and creating a special force of armed police to be present in each polling place. The Supreme Court upheld the national electoral board when it protested against these actions, but the government rejected the court’s decision. Election day, 5 October, was relatively quiet, though the government imposed a state of siege late in the afternoon because of minor disorders in the conservative department of Chontales”. ^[4]

The State Department hoped that the 1924 Nicaraguan election would bring conditions which would allow withdrawal of the legation guard from Managua. But the Nicaraguan election of 1924, conducted little better than preceding elections, was a saddening affair – no exception to the country’s political axiom that the candidate of the party in power always won. The Nicaraguan government claimed that the election of 5 October, took place with admirable liberty and impartiality. The Conservatives were unhappy with the outcome and protested voting in several cantons. “Strangely, even the victors of 1924 were far from jubilant. They feared extralegal action from the Conservatives, especially Emiliano Chamorro Vargas”. ^[5]

After giving consideration to the advisability both of a new election and the appointment of a coalition cabinet headed by a designate chosen by Congress, the U.S. Department of State decided to accord recognition to Carlos José Solórzano when he assumed the Presidency on 1 January 1925. "The genuine Conservatives refused to admit the legality of Solórzano’s Administration, and their opposition heightened when the Conservative Senators and Deputies, whose elections had been conceded by the National Board of Elections, were expelled by the Bartolomé Martínez-controlled Congress and Transactionists seated in their stead". ^[6]

Presidential election results^[7]

Legislative election

References

Bibliography

• Barquero, Sara L. Gobernantes de Nicaragua, 1825-1947. Managua: Publicaciones del Ministerio de Instrucción Pública. Second edition. 1945.
• Booth, John A. The end and the beginning: the Nicaraguan revolution. Boulder: Westview Press. Second edition, revised and updated. 1985.
• Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook Volume 1. North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Edited by Dieter Nohlen. 2005.
• Gould, Jeffrey L. To die in this way: Nicaraguan Indians and the myth of mestizaje, 1880-1965. Durham: Duke University Press. 1998.
• Kagan, Robert. A twilight struggle: American power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990. New York: Free Press. 1996.
• Kamman, William. A search for stability: United States diplomacy toward Nicaragua 1925-1933. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 1968.
• MacRenato, Ternot. Somoza: seizure of power, 1926-1939. La Jolla: University of California, San Diego. 1991.
• Merrill, Tim L., Nicaragua : a country study. Washington: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. 1994.
• Munro, Dana G. The United States and the Caribbean republics, 1921-1933. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1974.
• Musicant, Ivan. The banana wars: a history of United States military intervention in Latin America from the Spanish-American War to the invasion of Panama. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. 1990.
• Smith, Hazel. Nicaragua: self-determination and survival. London : Pluto Press. 1993.
• United States . Department of State. The United States and Nicaragua: a survey of the relations from 1909 to 1932. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1932.
• Vargas, Oscar-René. Elecciones presidenciales en Nicaragua, 1912-1932: análisis socio-político. Managua: Fundación Manolo Morales. 1989.

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