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Do you support that Emperor Adolfo continues his reign as Emperor of Creeperopolis indefinitely? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Outcome | Unanimous support for Adolfo III to continue reigning as Emperor of Creeperopolis, results denounced by the imperial government | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: Prensa Diario de La'Victoria 1887, p. 1,229 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1887 Creeperian referendum, also known as The Six Scandal (Creeperian: Escándalo de Los'Seis)[lower-alpha 1] and The Great Fraud (El Gran Fraude),[lower-alpha 2] was held on 5 October 1887 by Creeperian monarchists to support the continued reign of Creeperian emperor Adolfo III amidst tensions in Creeperopolis between monarchists and pro-democracy politicians.
The referendum was held independently of the imperial government by conservative politicians — led by Andrés Santamaría Juárez, Pedro Portillo Durán, and Ernesto Yagüe Riviera — that wanted to express their support for the country's monarchy. According to reporting from the Prensa Diario de La'Victoria newspaper, the referendum's organizers, known as "The Six" ("Los'Seis") claimed that 15,321,549 voters from across the country supported Adolfo III's continued reign while zero opposed it. Modern analysts believe that no more than 100 people in the city of La'Victoria actually voted, and as there were legally no registered voters in Creeperopolis at the time, the referendum had a mathematically infinite voter turnout.
Adolfo III himself condemned the referendum for "promoting democracy" ("promoviendo la'democracia") and its organizers were arrested. Creeperian liberals, including Inhué Ordóñez Yepes, also denounced the referendum for "blatant and shameless fraud" ("fraude flagrante y sin vergüenza") and called for a "legitimate" ("legítimo") election to occur. Creeperian conservatives that supported democratization, including Macos Espiga Mina, expressed more support for the referendum and sympathized with their intention of legitimizing Adolfo III's reign through a democratic election. The men who organized the referendum were convicted of election fraud but were later pardoned.
Background
Creeperian emperor Adolfo III began his reign in 1833 and ruled Creeperopolis as an absolute monarch. The Creeperian imperial government during Adolfo III's reign stressed the importance of the military and Catholicism in society. Imperial government officials (many of whom had military backgrounds) were all appointed, and often times these appointments were decided by relations and nepotism rather than merit.
By the 1880s, some Creeperian politicians began campaigning for government reforms; conservatives wanted to make government appointments more meritocratic, while liberals wanted democratization, and radicals wanted to establish a republic. In early 1886, liberal politician Inhué Ordóñez Yepes published A Proposal for Government, a manifesto that outlined his vision for a Creeperian parliamentary system led by a prime minister. The manifesto was published by Prensa Diaria in La'Libertad and gained significant support within the city, and over the next two years, Ordóñez Yepes' liberal ideas of democratization had spread across intellectual circles in Creeperopolis despite imperial government efforts to suppress his ideas. Some conservatives promoted their own visions for a democratic Creeperopolis, either due to a genuine desire for reform or to offer a more moderate proposal where the emperor retained significant power to counter what they viewed as a radical change.
Election conduct
In September 1887, some monarchist conservative leaders in the city of La'Victoria wanted to express their support for Adolfo III through holding a democratic referendum that would supposedly show that the Creeperian people overwhelmingly supported Adolfo III's continued reign. The proponents of holding such a referendum were constitutional monarchists that wanted a parliamentary system where Adolfo III continued to exert significant power and influence, but some were absolute monarchists that opposed democratization but viewed a referendum as a means to portray Adolfo III as being supported by the population.
Among the proponents of holding such a referendum included Mayor of La'Victoria Andrés Santamaría Juárez, Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Portillo Durán, judge Ernesto Yagüe Riviera, priest Félix Castro Herrea, and landowners Sergio Nariño Quintanilla and Alfonso Hidalgo Fuentes. These men are sometimes referred to as the "The Six" ("Los'Seis"); Santamaría Juárez, Portillo Durán, and Yagüe Riviera themselves are sometimes also known as "The Three" ("Los'Tres") as they were the referendum's primary organizers. After the referendum was held, The Six claimed that Archbishop of La'Victoria José Arrazola Sagasta had also supported the referendum, but Arrazola Sagasta denied any involvement.
The Six had ambitions to hold the referendum in all of Creeperopolis' viceroyalties, but they realized that organizing such a nationwide referendum would be costly and could take several years with the limited resourced they had. Instead, Portillo Durán suggested only holding the referendum in La'Victoria and extrapolating the results to the rest of the country. The other members of The Six supported Portillo Durán's proposal agreed to hold the referendum on 5 October 1887; they would publish the results the following day in a local newspaper.
Results
On 5 October 1887, The Six opened one polling station at the Hotel Grande, a property owned by Nariño Quintanilla near central La'Victoria. Some of Hidalgo Fuentes' laborers were at the hotel and promoted the referendum to passersby, incentivizing them to vote in exchange for free services at the hotel. People who decided to vote were instructed to take a ballot — containing an image of Adolfo III with no options to choose from — and place it inside a box to have their vote counted. The question "Do you support that Emperor Adolfo continues his reign as Emperor of Creeperopolis indefinitely?" ("¿Apoyas que Emperador Adolfo continua su reino como Emperador de Creeperópolis indefinitivamente?") was written on the box. Voting took place between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time.
That night, Santamaría Juárez and Castro Herrea took the results to the Prensa Diario de La'Victoria newspaper, and the following day, the newspaper published the results on the front page of the morning publication. Titled "A Triumph for the Emperor" ("Un Triunfo por'el Emperador"), the paper reported that 15,321,549 people voted in favor of Adolfo III continuing his reign and that zero people voted in opposition. Modern analysts state that at the time, there were no registered voters in Creeperopolis effectively making the voter turnout mathematically infinite, further adding that there would not be at least 15.3 million registered voters until the 1896 general election. Additionally, historian Fabián Murillo Quijada wrote that "no more than 100 people actually voted" ("no más que 100 personas votaron actualmente").
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Aftermath
Reactions
Jaime Contreras Alvarado, an editor for the Prensa Diario de La'Victoria, wrote the article that announced the referendum's result, and he described the result as an "irrefutable triumphal victory for those who support Emperor Adolfo" ("triunfo irrefutable para'quienes apoyan'al Emperador Adolfo") and that it "definitively put the liberals' fantasy to bed" ("puso la'fantasía de los'liberales a un fin definitivamente"). He also included statements from Santamaría Juárez, Portillo Durán, Yagüe Riviera, and Castro Herrea that spoke highly of the results and presented it as a turning point in Creeperian political history.
The Six believed that the imperial government would be welcoming of the apparent overwhelming popular support the results reported. When Prince Enrique, the viceroy of San Luís (the viceroyalty where La'Victoria is located), learned about the referendum, he denounced The Six and ordered the Creeperian Imperial Guard to arrest all those involved. Adolfo III himself also denounced The Six and accused them of "promoting democracy" ("promoviendo la'democracia"). The country's pro-government newspapers also condemned the referendum and issued attacks against the Prensa Diario de La'Victoria for their role in the publishing referendum's results.
Ordóñez Yepes criticized the results as being a "blatant and shameless fraud" ("fraude flagrante y sin vergüenza") and accused The Six of spreading pro-government propaganda. He called for a "legitimate" ("legítimo") election to be held that would "truly demonstrate what the Creeperian people believe" ("demostrar verdaderamente lo'que cree'l pueblo Creeperiano"). The Tiempos Democráticas newspaper claimed that the referendum was an "Adolfist conspiracy to mislead the public" ("conspiración Adolfisto para'engañar al público"). Socialist leader Cipriano Morales Valle called on Creeperans to hold a "real election" ("elección verdadera") to humiliate the "monarchist's farce" ("farsa monarquista").
While the vast majority of left- and right-wing politicians condemned or rebuked the results of the 1887 referendum, some conservatives that supported a constitutional monarchy with limits to the emperor's power voiced their support or sympathy for The Six. Conservative politician Macos Espiga Mina stated that "these men attempted but ultimately failed to do a noble deed for the country" ("estos hombres intentaron pero finalmente no lograron hacer un acto noble para'l país").
Litigation
The Six were arrested throughout October 1887 and charged with conspiracy, sedition, and promoting democracy, and faced the possibility of receiving the death penalty. Many of Nariño Quintanilla and Hidalgo Fuentes' laborers, some of whom were not involved in the referendum, and some journalists of the Prensa Diario de La'Victoria were also charged with sedition and promoting democracy. Adolfo III decreed that all the 33 defendants would be tried in December 1887 by a military tribunal. On 1 December 1887, before the trial was held, Adolfo III died and was succeeded as Emperor by Gustavo I. Gustavo I was willing to accept democratic reforms unlike his father, and the country's leading democratic activists were given permission to quickly organize a general election that month, the first general election in Creeperopolis since 1740 during the failed Republic of Creeperopolis. Ordóñez Yepes was elected as Creeperopolis' first prime minister, and in one of his first actions as prime minister, he decided to proceed with the trial of those involved in the 1887 referendum.
Ordóñez Yepes appointed judges to process the defendants and present new charges against them. The judges dismissed all charges against Nariño Quintanilla and Hidalgo Fuentes' laborers as well as the Prensa Diario de La'Victoria's journalists, stating that they were not fully aware of what the The Six were intending to do. The Six, however, were presented new charges of conspiracy, electoral fraud, publication fraud, and bribery. These new charges superseded the charges imposed by Adolfo III and were based on the men's actions relating to the referendum rather than being based on holding a referendum in the first place.
The trial was set for May 1888, by which time a second election had been held; the center-right National Conservative Party (PCN), led by Espiga Mina, gained many seats as many of its voters sympathized with The Six and wanted them acquitted of all charges. Espiga Mina personally represented Santamaría Juárez in court arguing that Santamaría Juárez and the other members of The Six intended to demonstrate to the Creeperian people that democratization was a good and inevitable future and not that they intended to defraud the public. The defense attorneys for the other defendants made similar arguments. Ultimately, on 15 June 1888, five of the six defendants were found guilty on all charges; Castro Herrea was acquitted of all charges when his defense attorney convinced the judges that he was not involved in planning the referendum and that he had been deceived by the others to help present the results to the Prensa Diario de La'Victoria. The five defendants who were convicted were each sentenced to 20 years imprisonment the following week.
Many PCN politicians criticized the convictions and sentences as unjust and called on Ordóñez Yepes to pardon all the defendants, but Ordóñez Yepes refused to do so stating that "the court has decided" ("la'corte ha decidido"). In the 1896 general election, the Creeperian Front (FC) won the most seats in the National Parliament and elected Espiga Mina as Creeperopolis' next prime minister. On 21 November 1896, Espiga Mina's first day in office, he issued full pardons to Santamaría Juárez, Portillo Durán, Yagüe Riviera, Nariño Quintanilla, and Hidalgo Fuentes, describing their convictions and sentences as "unjust" ("injusto"). The Popular Front (FP) criticized the pardons.
Later developments
Espiga Mina's government collapsed a little under 200 days into his premiership and Ordóñez Yepes became prime minister on 28 June 1897 after winning that year's snap election. Ordóñez Yepes wanted to overturn Espiga Mina's pardons of the five convicted members of The Six, but the Supreme Court of Creeperopolis ruled that pardons cannot be revoked as per the country's constitution.
Prince Enrique, 22 September 1934
By the late 1890s, many conservatives in Creeperopolis had come to support the 1887 referendum as democratic ideals had since become the majority in Creeperian politics. Many who condemned the referendum at the time had changed their position and began to support or sympathize with The Six. Francisco Dueñas Díaz, the leader of the Catholic Royalist Party (PRC), stated in 1896 that "The Six intended to preserve the monarchy and we should applaud their efforts instead of condemning them" ("Los'Seis pretendían preservar la'monarquía y deberíamos aplaudir sus esfuerzos en lugar de condenarlos"). Some continued to condemn the referendum however, including Prince Enrique who blamed the referendum as the catalyst for Creeperopolis' democratization.
Santamaría Juárez, Portillo Durán, and Yagüe Riviera all participated in the 1901 general election as members of the PCN, hoping to become members of the National Parliament off of name recognition as members of The Six. On 2 January 1901, three days before the election, Santamaría Juárez was assassinated in La'Victoria by José Gómez Infantes, a retired soldier who blamed The Six for leading to Creeperopolis' democratization. Yagüe Riviera won his election and represented San Andrés in the National Parliament for two terms from 1901 until his death in 1908; Portillo Durán lost his election and never re-entered politics. Castro Herrea was defrocked by Pope Leo XIII shortly after his arrest in October 1887, but after he was acquitted of all charges in June 1888, Leo XIII restored Castro Herrea his full duties and responsibilities. Leo XIII had intended to excommunicate Castro Herrea if he was found guilty. Nariño Quintanilla and Hidalgo Fuentes had all their properties and wealth confiscated after their convictions, and the La'Victoria government refused to issue them compensation.
Historical analysis
In Creeperopolis, the 1887 referendum has had no lasting impact on modern politics as the Second Parliamentary Era came to an end in 1949 with the Catholic Imperial Restoration Council's victory in the Creeperian Civil War and its subsequent antagonization of democracy. It is seldom mentioned in Creeperian academia due to its apparent lack of importance to the Creeperian government. Creeperian historian Maximiliano Trejo Grijalva described the 1887 referendum as an "otherwise insignificant event" ("evento por lo'demás insignificante") that was "made out to be more than it actually was" ("hecho para'ser más de lo'que realmente era"). Salvadoran president Orlando Pareja Palau wrote in his 2021 book The Inconvenient Truth About Democracy that the referendum is "a forgotten failure of democracy" ("un fracàs oblidat de la democràcia").
In 2023, the Global Freedom Network think tank wrote that the 1887 referendum was an "obviously false and fabricated [...] but important first step" ("ar ndóigh bréagach agus déanta [...] ach an chéad chéim thábhachtach") to bringing modern democracy to Creeperopolis. Historians and political scientists consider the 1887 Creeperian referendum to be one of the most fraudulent elections or referendums in history with Journal of Election Sciences contributor Léonard Castex writing that "there is no other electoral fraud quite like it" ("il n'y a pas d'autre fraude électorale comparable").
See also
Notes
- ↑ Creeperian pronunciation: [esˈkandalo ðe los‿ˈseis]
- ↑ Creeperian pronunciation: [el gran ˈfɾaude]
- ↑ Creeperian translation: "No debemos conmemorar ni glorificar ni romantizar la'necedad de seis hombres cuyo error condujo'l surgimiento de una generación degenerada de políticos en la'Patria."
Bibliography
- Contreras Alvarado, Jaime, ed. (6 October 1887). "Un Triunfo por'el Emperador" [A Triumph for the Emperor] (PDF). Prensa Diario de La'Victoria (in Creeperian). 23 (232). La'Victoria, Creeperopolis. pp. 1229–1232. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2025.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)