Parliamentary elections were held in Chile on 30 March 1834 during the presidency of José Joaquín Prieto. They were the first parliamentary elections held under the Constitution of 1833 and renewed the entire National Congress. Fifty-six deputies were elected directly, while the 20 senators were chosen indirectly through provincial electoral colleges. The election produced a large government majority and was marked by a sharp reduction in the number of registered electors compared with the preceding electoral system, reflecting the more restrictive application of census suffrage.
Background
The election followed the political consolidation of the conservative forces that had come to power after the Chilean Civil War of 1829–1830. Prieto had been president since 1831, while the new Constitution promulgated on 25 May 1833 established a strongly presidential system and reorganized the National Congress.
The Constitution required that new elections be held in 1834 to renew both chambers in their entirety. The existing members remained in office until the new Congress was constituted. It also established that the senators elected in 1834 would subsequently be divided by lot into three groups for the first triennial renewals of the Senate.
The election inaugurated the fourth legislative period under the new constitutional order, which ran from 1 June 1834 to 31 May 1837.
Electoral system
The Constitution of 1833 established a restricted electoral system. Active suffrage was granted to Chilean men who had reached the required age, knew how to read and write, and met specified property, capital, occupation, income or usufruct requirements. Voters also had to be registered in the electoral register of their municipality and possess a qualification certificate issued at least three months before an election.
The Chamber of Deputies was elected directly by department. The Constitution provided for one deputy for every 20,000 inhabitants, or for a fraction of at least 10,000, and the entire chamber was to be renewed every three years.
The 1833 electoral regulation divided the country into departments for purposes of electing deputies. The 56 deputies elected in 1834 represented 38 departments or electoral districts across the nine provinces then existing in Chile. Some districts elected one deputy, while others elected two or more according to their population; Santiago elected the largest delegation.
The Senate consisted of 20 members. Senators were elected indirectly by special electors chosen by the departments, with three Senate electors appointed for every deputy to which a department was entitled. The electors met in the capitals of their respective provinces and voted for the required number of senators. The Senate subsequently conducted a general scrutiny of the provincial returns. Senators served nine-year terms and were to be renewed by thirds, with seven senators elected in each of the first two triennial renewals and six in the third.
Because 1834 was the first election under the new Constitution, all 20 Senate seats were filled at once. The Constitution provided that the senators elected in 1834 would be divided by lot among the three future renewal cycles.
Campaign and voting
The election was conducted under the new electoral regulations promulgated on 2 December 1833. The strict application of the censitary requirements sharply reduced the size of the electorate. The Library of the National Congress, drawing on contemporary and later historical studies, reports that the number of registered electors fell from 20,287 in 1829 to approximately 7,000 in 1834.
Electoral competition was limited but not entirely absent. J. Samuel Valenzuela's reconstruction of the electoral returns identifies 37 deputy districts for the 1834 election, of which 18 had more candidates than available seats. Two districts met his definition of a close contest, while no seats could be identified as having been won by opposition candidates.
The surviving legislative records also show that the electoral process generated disputes over the validity of individual returns. In Talca, for example, the electoral scrutiny initially omitted the votes cast in Curepto, leading the provincial authorities to submit the matter to the government and subsequently to the Chamber of Deputies. The Chamber later approved the election of Joaquín Tocornal and Ambrosio Aldunate as deputies for Talca, with Pedro Vidal Letelier as substitute.
The election also illustrates the influence of personal and government-aligned networks rather than a modern party system. Political groupings in the 1830s were fluid, and the later Conservative and Liberal parties had not yet developed into the formal organizations that characterized Chilean politics later in the nineteenth century.
Results
The election produced a large majority for the government and its conservative supporters.
The academic reconstruction of the Chamber's returns found electoral competition in 18 of 37 districts, but no identifiable opposition victories. Two districts qualified as close contests under Valenzuela's methodology.
Group |
|
|---|---|
Government and conservative supporters |
56 |
Total |
|
The table should not be interpreted as a modern party result. The classification reflects the contemporary political alignment of the elected Congress rather than membership in a formally organized party. The Library of the National Congress describes the election as producing a large conservative, or government, majority.
Chamber of Deputies
Fifty-six deputies were elected from 38 departments or electoral districts. The contemporary records contain numerous examples of highly concentrated voting. In Santiago, for example, the successful candidates received between 838 and 883 votes in the surviving general scrutiny, while most unsuccessful candidates received only one vote or a handful of votes.
Among those elected in Santiago were José Antonio Rosales, Francisco Huidobro, Pedro Nolasco Vidal, Fernando Plata, Domingo Eyzaguirre, Manuel Barros Andonaegui and José Santiago Montt. Manuel Joaquín Gutiérrez, José Joaquín Pérez and Miguel Arístegui were elected as substitute deputies.
The final composition of the Chamber changed somewhat as elected deputies who had won seats in more than one district chose between their mandates. Manuel Barros, for example, chose to serve as deputy for Santiago rather than Quillota, resulting in Francisco Javier Riesco being called as the substitute for Quillota.
Senate
The Senate election was conducted indirectly. The special electoral colleges met in the capitals of the nine provinces, with the provincial returns then transmitted to the Conservative Commission and subsequently to the Senate for the general scrutiny required by the Constitution.
The Senate proclaimed 20 senators elected at its general scrutiny on 31 May 1834: Diego Antonio Barros, José Ignacio Eyzaguirre, Pedro Ovalle y Landa, Juan Agustín Alcalde, Santiago Echéverz, José Miguel Irarrázaval, Gabriel José Tocornal, Manuel José Gandarillas, Estanislao Portales, Manuel Rengifo, José Manuel Ortúzar, José María Rozas, Fernando Antonio Elizalde, Fernando Errázuriz, Juan Francisco Meneses, Agustín Vial Santelices, Diego Antonio Elizondo, Juan de Dios Vial del Río, Diego José Benavente and Mariano Egaña.
The final scrutiny was based on the votes returned by the nine provincial electoral colleges. Diego Antonio Barros received the highest total, with 141 electoral votes. José Ignacio Eyzaguirre, Pedro Ovalle y Landa, Juan Agustín Alcalde and Santiago Echéverz each received 140, while José Miguel Irarrázaval, Gabriel José Tocornal and Manuel José Gandarillas each received 139.
The Senate's composition was overwhelmingly aligned with the conservative government. Several of the elected senators, including Diego José Benavente, Mariano Egaña and Manuel José Gandarillas, became prominent figures in Chilean political life during the following decades.
Aftermath
The new Congress was constituted in June 1834. The formal installation of both chambers took place on 5 June, after preparatory sessions had been held at the beginning of the month.
The election inaugurated the fourth legislative period, which lasted until 31 May 1837. The new Congress operated within the strongly presidential framework of the 1833 Constitution, under which the executive possessed extensive powers relative to the legislature.
The election also established the initial membership of the Senate under the new constitutional system. Rather than representing separate geographic constituencies, the 20 senators elected in 1834 represented the republic as a whole. Their nine-year terms were subsequently staggered by lot so that the Senate could be renewed by thirds every three years.
The election's combination of restricted suffrage, limited electoral competition and a strong government majority became characteristic of the early decades of the 1833 constitutional order. The subsequent 1837 election was held under even more exceptional political circumstances, during preparations for the War of the Confederation.
See also
- History of Chile
- Politics of Chile