1895 Salvadoran presidential election

1895 Salvadoran presidential election
← 1891 January 1895 1899 →
President before election; Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez; Liberal/Military	Elected President ; Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez; Liberal/Military

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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.^[1] General Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez, who led the revolution and succeeded Carlos as provisional president,^[2] 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.^[3]^[4] All men were eligible to vote in the election.^[5]

Gutiérrez, Alfaro, Meléndez, and Regalado were all liberals.^[6] However, none of the candidates are known to have run on ideological platforms or proper policy proposals.^[7] Meléndez's campaign was supported by the Nueva San Salvador-based newspaper La Verdad.^[8]

Results

In the presidential election, Gutiérrez received 61,080 votes with only 91 votes against.^[9] 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.^[10] 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.^[11] 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.^[12] 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.^[9] Voter turnout was around 40%.^[13]

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.^[14] He also described Gutiérrez's role in the election as that of an "undisputed leader who kept electoral passions in check".^[15]

President


Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez	Liberal/Military	61,080	99.85
Against			91	0.15
Total			61,171	100.00

Source: Ching 1997, p. 175

Vice president


Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Prudencio Alfaro	Liberal	38,006	62.51
	Carlos Meléndez	Liberal	18,792	30.91
Other candidates			4,000	6.58
Total			60,798	100.00

Source: 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 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
Cuscatlán^[a]	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
Total^[9]	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.^[17]

Gutiérrez and Alfaro both assumed office on 1 March 1895.^[2] In 1898, Regaldo overthrew the government due to Gutiérrez's plans to rig the upcoming presidential election to allow him to remain in office.^[18] Alfaro, Gutiérrez, and Meléndez all unsuccessfully ran for president in 1907,^[19] and that same year, Alfaro led a failed war against the Salvadoran government.^[20] In 1913, Meléndez finally became president, beginning a political dynasty that would rule the country for the next thirteen years.^[21]

Notes

^ According 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.^[16]

References

Citations

^ Ching 1997, pp. 175–176.
^ ^a ^b Casa Presidencial.
^ Ching 1997, pp. 175 & 177.
^ Diario Oficial 1895, p. 161.
^ Krennerich 2005, p. 270.
^ White 1973, pp. 87–88 & 91.
^ Ching 2014, p. 42.
^ Ching 2014, p. 40.
^ ^a ^b ^c Ching 1997, p. 175.
^ Ching 1997, pp. 175–177.
^ Ching 1997, p. 177.
^ Ching 1997, pp. 177–178.
^ Ching 2014, p. 41.
^ Ching 1997, p. 178.
^ Ching 1997, p. 245.
^ Ching 1997, p. 507.
^ Ching 2014, pp. 41–42.
^ Ching 2014, p. 173.
^ Diario Oficial 1907, p. 354.
^ Cruz Zepeda Peña 2006, pp. 141–142.
^ Ching 2014, p. 158.

Bibliography

Ching, Erik K. (1997). From Clientelism to Militarism: The State, Politics and Authoritarianism in El Salvador, 1840–1940. Santa Barbara, California: University of California, Santa Barbara. OCLC 39326756. ProQuest 304330235. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
Ching, Erik K. (2014). Authoritarian El Salvador: Politics and Origins of the Military Regimes, 1880-1940. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 978-0-268-02375-1. Retrieved 20 June 2026.
Cruz Zepeda Peña, Ciro (2006). "Historia del Órgano Legislativo de la República de El Salvador" [History of the Legislative Organ of the Republic of El Salvador] (PDF) (in Spanish). Legislative Assembly of El Salvador. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2026.
"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] (PDF). Diario Oficial (in Spanish). Vol. 62, no. 48. 26 February 1907. p. 354. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2026.
"Presidentes de El Salvador – General Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez" [Presidents of El Salvador – General Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez]. Casa Presidencial (in Spanish). Government of El Salvador. Archived from the original on 2 March 2009. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
Krennerich, Michael (2005). "El Salvador". In Nohlen, Dieter (ed.). Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook Volume 1: North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 270–299. ISBN 9780191557934. OCLC 58051010. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
"Sección Editorial: Las Elecciones a Altos Poderes" [Editorial Section: The Elections to High Powers] (PDF). Diario Oficial (in Spanish). Vol. 38, no. 26. 30 January 1895. pp. 161–162. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
White, Alastair (1973). El Salvador. Nations of the Modern World. London and Tonbridge: Ernest Benn Limited. ISBN 0510395236. LCCN 73175341. OCLC 1391406624. Retrieved 1 December 2025.