A severe drought in 1952 and years of pessimism in Argentina's important agrarian sector depleted foreign reserves and forced Perón to curtail public lending and spending programs.

[1] Controversy surrounding Perón's in-laws and political violence both by and against his Peronist movement had dogged the president in the first half of 1953, and he took the opportunity of upcoming legislative polls to test his popularity.

Perón nominated Senator Alberto Teisaire as the candidate for the then named Partido Peronista (Peronist Party).

[2] In the opposition since 15 years before Perón took office, the centrist UCR had been burdened by censorship and sundry forms of harassment since 1930, and 1953 had been marked by the jailing of most of their leaders.

This did not, however, ease the UCR's restriction to access to most mass media, and the party was defeated by similar numbers to their 1951 loss.