1876 Spanish general election

The 1876 Spanish general election was held from Thursday, 20 January to Tuesday, 15 February 1876, to elect the Constituent Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 391 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 196 seats in the Senate.[1] On 5 April 1877, another election to the Senate was held.[2]

1876 Spanish general election

20 January–15 February 1876
All 391 seats in the Congress of Deputies and all 196 seats in the Senate 196 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
First party Second party Third party   Leader Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Alejandro Pidal y Mon Party Conservative Constitutional Moderate Leader since 1874 1872 1876 Leader's seat Madrid Zamora Villaviciosa Last election 3 seats 7 seats 0 seats Seats won 317 48 12 Seat change 314 41 12   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Cristino Martos Emilio Castelar Party Radical PRDF Leader since 1871 1876 Leader's seat — Barcelona Last election 20 seats 347 seats Seats won 6 1 Seat change 14 346
Prime Minister before election Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Conservative Elected Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Conservative

This was the first election held after the end of the First Spanish Republic in 1874. The newly-founded Liberal Conservative Party (PLC) of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo won an overall majority of seats. The result of the election 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

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.

Electoral system

The Spanish Cortes were envisaged as "co-legislative bodies", based on a nearly perfect bicameralism. Both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate had legislative, control and budgetary functions, sharing equal powers except for laws on contributions or public credit, where the Congress had preeminence.[3][4] Voting for the Cortes was on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, which comprised all national males over twenty-one and in full enjoyment of their civil rights.[5][lower-alpha 1]

For the Congress of Deputies, 391 seats were elected using the first-past-the-post method under a one-round system. Candidates winning a plurality in each constituency were elected. The provinces of Spain were divided into single-member districts, with each province entitled to one district per each 40,000 inhabitants or fraction greater than 20,000. The law also provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated throughout the legislature.[3][6]

For the Senate, 196 seats were indirectly elected, with electors voting for delegates instead of senators. Elected delegates—equivalent in number to one-sixth of the councillors in each municipal corporation—would then vote for senators using a write-in, two-round majority voting system. Each province was allocated four seats.[3][6]

Election date

The term of each House of the Cortes—the Congress and one-quarter of the Senate—expired three years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier. The Monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both Houses at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election.[3][6]

Results

Congress of Deputies

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

Parties and coalitions			Seats
			Seats	+/−
		Liberal Conservative Party (Ministerials) (PLC)	317
		Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)	305
		Foralist Conservatives (Cons.f)	8
		Parliamentary Centre (CP)	4
		Moderate Party (PM)	12
Total Conservatives			329
		Constitutional Party (PC)	48
		Constitutional Party (PC)	44
		Foralist Liberals (Lib.f)	2
		Independent Liberals (Lib.i)	2
Total Liberals			48
		Radical Democratic Party (PDR)	6
		Radical Democratic Party (PDR)	5
		Monarchist Radicals (Rad.m)	1
		Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF)	1
Total Radicals and Republicans			7
	Independents (Indep)		7
Total			391
Sources[7][8]

Seats (parties/coalitions) PLC   81.07% PC   12.28% PM   3.07% PDR   1.53% PRDF   0.26% Indep   1.79%

Seats (factions) Conservatives   84.14% Liberals   12.28% Republicans   1.79% Others   1.79%

Notes

1. For the 1876 election, the laws of the First Spanish Republic remained in force, including the provisions for both the Congress and Senate within the Spanish Constitution of 1869. As a result, the original electoral law of 1870 was applied, without including the changes introduced by the 1873 amendments.[1]

Bibliography

• Carreras de Odriozola, Albert; Tafunell Sambola, Xavier (2005) [1989]. Estadísticas históricas de España, siglos XIX-XX (PDF) (in Spanish). Volume 1 (II ed.). Bilbao: Fundación BBVA. pp. 1072–1097. ISBN 84-96515-00-1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015.

References

1. "Royal decree providing for the Cortes of the Spanish Monarchy to meet on 15 February, and noting the days on which the elections of Senators and Deputies are to begin". Royal Decree of 31 December 1875 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
2. "Real decreto disolviendo el actual Senado, y señalando el día 5 de Abril próximo para la elección de los Senadores que deben nombrar las Corporaciones del Estado y los mayores contribuyentes" (pdf). Gaceta de Madrid (in Spanish). Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado (41): 375. 10 February 1877.
3. "Spanish Constitution of 1869". Act of 6 June 1869 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
4. "El Senado en la historia constitucional española". senado.es (in Spanish). Senate of Spain. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
5. Carreras de Odriozola & Tafunell Sambola 2005, pp. 1077.
6. "Electoral Law of 1870". Electoral Law of 20 August 1870 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
7. "Cortes election 20 January 1876". historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish). Electoral History. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
8. "Graphs and analysis: Elections in the Revolutionary Sexennium and the Restoration 1869-1923". historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish). Electoral History. Retrieved 24 September 2017.

External links

• Historical archive of deputies (1810–1977) from www.congreso.es, the official Congress of Deputies web portal (in Spanish)
• Elections in the Sexenio Revolucionario and the Restoration at www.historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish/Catalan)