The 1829 Chilean parliamentary election was held on 7 and 8 June 1829 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies under the Constitution of 1828. It produced a decisive victory for the liberal faction supporting the government of Francisco Antonio Pinto, which won more than two-thirds of the deputy seats. The election was held amid growing political conflict between liberals and conservatives, which soon developed into the Chilean Civil War of 1829–1830.
The election formed the Chamber of Deputies of the first bicameral Congress established under the 1828 Constitution. The Chamber was composed of between 55 and 57 members, elected directly, while the 16-member Senate had already been selected by the Constituent Congress in 1828. The election also marked the first use of an indirect electoral system for choosing presidential electors, a system that remained in use for presidential elections until the 1925 Constitution introduced direct presidential elections.
Background
The Constitution of 1828 established a bicameral Congress consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. Deputies were elected directly by the population, with one deputy for every 15,000 inhabitants or fraction of at least 7,000. Their terms lasted two years. Senators were elected by the provincial assemblies at a rate of two senators per province, with four-year terms and half of the Senate renewed every two years.
The Constitution was adopted during a period of political ascendancy by the liberal pipiolos, following the election of a Constituent Congress in January 1828. The conservative pelucones and other opposition groups disputed the political direction of the government and increasingly challenged the liberal majority in Congress.
The electoral law governing the election was enacted in November 1828 and subsequently supplemented by regulations establishing the procedures for direct and indirect voting. Direct elections required voters to be registered in their parish electoral rolls and to present the appropriate qualification certificate. Voting for deputies was conducted through parish receiving boards, after which municipal authorities carried out the general scrutiny of the votes.
Electoral system
The Chamber of Deputies was elected by direct popular vote. The 1828 Constitution established one deputy for every 15,000 inhabitants, with an additional deputy for a population fraction of at least 7,000. Candidates had to be citizens in the exercise of their political rights, at least 25 years old if unmarried or younger if married, and possess property, a profession, or an occupation providing a sufficient livelihood. Certain civil and military officials and members of the clergy were ineligible.
The electoral law provided for receiving boards in each parish. Voting took place over several days, with the votes deposited in secured ballot boxes and subsequently scrutinized by the municipal authorities. The elected candidates were then publicly proclaimed and the results transmitted to the provincial and national authorities.
The Senate did not form part of the 1829 electoral contest in the same way as the Chamber. The 16 senators required by the 1828 Constitution had been selected from among the members of the Constituent Congress in 1828. Consequently, the principal electoral contest in 1829 was for the Chamber of Deputies.
Election
The deputy elections took place on Sunday 7 and Monday 8 June 1829 in Santiago and throughout the provinces. Contemporary electoral records document voting and subsequent scrutiny in individual departments, including Rere, Laja, Los Andes and other constituencies. The municipal authorities conducted the local and general scrutinies before transmitting the results to the relevant authorities.
The election resulted in an overwhelming victory for the liberal faction then dominant in the government. The Library of the National Congress of Chile describes the liberals as winning more than two-thirds of the total number of deputies, both in Santiago and in most departments. The result therefore gave the government a strong parliamentary majority before the political crisis that followed later that year.
The election took place in an increasingly polarized political environment. Francisco Antonio Pinto had been reelected president in the presidential election of 1829, but no candidate for vice president obtained the constitutionally required majority. The liberal majority in Congress subsequently selected Joaquín Vicuña Larraín, who had received the fourth-highest number of electoral votes, over the conservative candidates Francisco Ruiz-Tagle and José Joaquín Prieto. Conservatives and other opposition groups rejected the decision, helping to trigger the civil conflict that began later in 1829.
Aftermath
The new Chamber began meeting during a period of rapidly escalating political conflict. Congress moved its sessions from Santiago to Valparaíso in September 1829, partly because the port offered greater security and allowed the legislature to oversee the presidential electoral scrutiny there.
The parliamentary majority was closely associated with the liberal government that was challenged by the conservative opposition. The dispute over the presidential succession and the legitimacy of the congressional choice of vice president contributed to the outbreak of the Chilean Civil War of 1829–1830. The conflict ultimately ended the liberal political ascendancy established under the 1828 Constitution.
The conservative victory in the civil war culminated in the Battle of Lircay in April 1830. The resulting political order led to the replacement of the 1828 constitutional framework and ultimately to the adoption of the Constitution of 1833, which established the institutional framework of the subsequent conservative period.