Spanish general election, 1876

Spanish general election, 1876

20 January 1876

All 391 seats in the Congress of Deputies 196 seats needed for a majority Registered 3,989,612 Turnout 2,219,494 (55.6%)   First party Second party Third party   Leader Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Alejandro Mon Party PLC PC PM Leader since 1874 1872 Unknown Leader's seat Madrid Zamora No seat Last election 3 seats 7 seats Did not contest Seats won 317 48 12 Seat change 314 41 12

Most voted party by region and province.   PLC   PC

Prime Minister before election Antonio Cánovas del Castillo PLC Elected Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo PLC

The 1876 Spanish general election was held on Thursday, 20 January 1876, to elect the Constituent Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. At stake were all 391 seats in the Congress of Deputies.^[1][2]

This was the first election held after the end of the First Spanish Republic in 1874. The Conservative Party of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo won the most seats. The election had a constituent character and would pave the way for the adoption of the Spanish Constitution of 1876, marking the starting point of the Bourbon Restoration that would last until 1931.

Overview

Electoral system

The Spanish legislature, the Cortes (Spanish for Courts), was composed of two chambers at the time of the 1876 election:

• The lower chamber, the Congress of Deputies.
• The upper chamber, the Senate.

This bicameral system—with the two chambers established as "co-legislative bodies"—required for bills to be passed by both of them before being enforced, with laws passed in the Congress barred from entering into force without the Senate's consent.

The electoral system in Spain was on the basis of universal manhood suffrage in a secret ballot, with a minimum voting age of 21.

Congress of Deputies

For the Congress of Deputies, the number of seats was determined by the population count, with 1 seat per each 50,000 inhabitants. For the 1876 election, the Congress size was set at 391 seats. Each parliamentary constituency elected one MP to the Congress using the "first past the post" system.^[3]

Senate

The Senate was composed of 360 appointed members of three different classes:

• Senators in their own right. The King's offspring, including the heir apparent; Grandees of Spain of the first class, captain generals of the Army, the Navy Admiral, the Patriarch of the Indies and archbishops, among others.
• Lifetime senators. Appointed by the King.
• Elective senators. Appointed by major contributors, councilors, provincial deputies, universities, metropolitan councils, the Royal Academy of History, the Royal Academy of Medicine or others, as well as by Ministries, Societies of Friends of the Country and other economic societies.

The Constitution of 1876 provided for 180 elective senators being in place, with the number of senators appointed in one of the remaining classes not exceeding 180. Elective senators served terms of ten years each; with terms staggered so that approximately one-half of the seats were up for appointment every five years. However, the King could dissolve this part of the Senate at will, triggering the appointment of the full contingent of elective senators.^[4]

Background

The pronunciamiento—a military coup—of Arsenio Martínez Campos on 29 December 1874 put an end to the First Spanish Republic and hastened the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in the figure of Alfonso XII, son of former Queen Isabel II. An interim government led by Cánovas del Castillo was confirmed by King Alfonso XII upon disembarking in Barcelona on 9 January 1875.

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 20 January 1876 Spanish Congress of Deputies election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)				317	+314
	Constitutional Party (PC)				48	+41
	Moderate Party (PM)				12	+12
	Radical Party (PR)				5	–15
	Democratic Party (PD)				1	+1
	Monarchic Radical (RadMon)				1	+1
	Democratic Federal Republican Party (PRDF)				0	–347
	Independents and vacants				7	–7
Total		2,219,494	100.00		391	±0
Votes cast / turnout		2,219,494	55.63
Abstentions		1,770,118	44.37
Registered voters		3,989,612
Source: Historia Electoral Spain Historical Statistics, pag. 1093

References

1. "Restoration Elections" (in Spanish). historiaelectoral.com. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
2. "Summary of MPs 1869-1923" (in Spanish). historiaelectoral.com. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
3. "Spain Historical Statistics" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-05-06.
4. "The Constitution of 1976" (PDF).