THE FIRST REGULAR ELECTIONS
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Electoral changes - Electoral changes used to be made right before the elections, in order to guarantee majority to the government.

All of this occasioned countless possibilities of fraud.

During the Old Republic, the "governors' politics" prevailed: the President of the Republic supported candidates indicated by the Governors for the provincial elections, and these gave support to the President's candidate for the presidential elections. This plan relied on the "colonels", who controlled the regional electorate; they campaigned for official candidates, and supervised the non-secret vote and its count. Therefore, the result was nearly always predictable.

The government had great power of intervention in the elections.

The Congress' Powers Verification Committee, responsible for the elections definitive results, used to exclude some of the elects during the final phase. These exclusions were called "beheadings."