The first presidential election by popular vote was on September 15, 1935, after the ratification of the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines; Manuel Quezon of the Nacionalista Party emerged as the victor, defeating previous president Emilio Aguinaldo (Aguinaldo was elected president by the Malolos Congress). As a commonwealth then of the United States, the constitution decreed that the president shall have one term of six years without reelection. In 1940, it was amended to allow one reelection, but with the term shortened to four years; this setup was first used in the second election in 1941 with Quezon being reelected.