As one of the older figures of the Republican regime (he was 71), he was elected President on August 24, 1911; he did not campaign for the position, and noted that it was a heavy burden, which he believed he was personally incapable of fulfilling its duties, but accepted it "for the good of the Republic". The other candidate was Dr. Bernardino Machado (who would also become President later), but it was António José de Almeida who had suggested Manuel Arriaga at the end of Teófilo Braga's Provisional Government. As Almeida had believed Arriaga "was one of the few if not the only man in the Party who worked well with everyone and whom the Lord Christ didn't speak ill".