Guatemalan general election, 1944

A presidential election was held in Guatemala on 17–19 December 1944. The October Revolution of 1944 had overthrown Jorge Ubico, the U.S. backed dictator of Guatemala.^[1] A junta composed of Francisco Javier Arana, Jacobo Árbenz and Jorge Toriello took power, and quickly announced presidential elections, as well as elections for a constituent assembly.^[2] The subsequent elections took place in December 1944, and were broadly considered free and fair,^[3] although only literate men were given the vote.^[4] Unlike in similar historical situations, none of the junta members stood for election.^[3] The front-runner was the philosophically conservative University professor Juan José Arévalo, of the Renovación Nacional. Arévalo's closest challenger was Adrián Recinos, whose campaign included a number of individuals identified with the Ubico regime.^[3] The ballots were tallied on 19 December 1944, and Arévalo won in a landslide, receiving more than four times as many ballots as the other candidates combined.^[3]

Presidential election results

FUPA – United Front of Arevalist Parties (The FUPA was a political electoral front. The principal partners in the front were the Popular Liberation Front (FPL) and the National Renovation Party (PRN)).

FND – National Democratic Front

PDC – Central Democratic Party

PTRD – Workers Republican-Democratic Party

PSD – Social Democratic Party

PD – Democratic Party

PCN – National Accord Party

PAN – Nationalist Action Party

UC – Civic Union

PCA – Central-American party

PCD – Democratic Constitutionalist Party

Notes and References

Notes

Sources

• Gleijeses, Piero (1991). Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02556-8. 
• Immerman, Richard H. (1982). The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention. Austin: University of Texas Press. 
• Streeter, Stephen M. (2000). Managing the Counterrevolution: The United States and Guatemala, 1954-1961. Ohio University Press. ISBN 9780896802155. 

Further reading

• Villagrán Kramer, Francisco. Biografía política de Guatemala: años de guerra y años de paz. FLACSO-Guatemala, 2004.
• Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook Volume 1. North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Edited by Dieter Nohlen. 2005.
• 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 ([Guatemala])
• Castillo, R. Geografía Electoral de Guatemala, Guatemala, INCEP, 1972.

Elections and referendums in Guatemala
Presidential elections	1873 1880 1898 1904 1910 1916 1920 (Apr) 1920 (Aug) 1922 1926 1931 1941 1944 1950 1957 1958 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1985 1990–91 1993 1995–96 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015
Parliamentary elections	1873 1880 1923 1925 1926 1927 1929 1931 1935 1944 (Oct) 1944 (Nov) 1944 (Dec) 1947 1948 1950 1953 1954 1955 1957 1958 1959 1961 1964 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1984 1985 1990 1994 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015
Referendums	1935 1954 1994 1999
See also: Elections in the Federal Republic of Central America