1855 Riograndense general election (RRG)

The 1855 Riograndense general election was held on October 7, 1855 to elect the president, the Chamber of Deputies, all municipal councils and a third of the Senate. This was the first presidential election since July 1851 to have more than one presidential candidate as the conservative Party of Order and Conservative Party fielded a common candidate. Incumbent President Netto was defeated former president Domingo José de Almeida and his Radical Party retained their supermajority in the Chamber and their majority in the Senate, thereby keeping its government trifecta.

Electoral system
The president was elected via universal male suffrage through a single-round plurality voting system. This was the first election where an incumbent president could be re-elected.

The 4 out of 13 members of the Senate were elected using a new system of open-list proportional representation from a single nationwide district. The members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected from 27 geographical constituencies using a first-past-the-post system.

Background
The first term of General Netto's presidency was tumultuous as the Radical government passed sweeping reforms while the country itself was embroiled in international conflicts in neighboring Uruguay and Argentina. In addition, the conservative elements of the army executed a failed military coup in 1854 with the tacit support of the members of the Conservative Party.

The first two years of President Netto's mandate was marked by the Platine War where Brazil, Uruguay and their liberal Argentine allies were opposed to the conservative Argentine government and Uruguayan conservatives. Though it did not militarily intervene, the Riograndense Republic sponsored the Brazilian war effort as it wanted to destabilize Rio Grande's biggest competitors on the beef jerky market. Thanks to this pro-Brazilian position, diplomatic relations between the Empire and its former province were normalized and a trade agreement that opened Brazilian markets to Riograndense beef jerky was signed in 1854.

Throughout all of this the government implemented two major reforms: the creation of free public schools in 1852 and the creation of programs of land distribution encouraging European immigration in 1854. The education reform would serve as the basis for the rapid growth in literacy rates throughout the second part of the 19th century while the program of land redistribution would attract thousands of new migrants that would settle the previously uncultivated areas of the country.