1903 Spanish general election

The 1903 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 26 April and on Sunday, 10 May 1903, to elect the 11th Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 403 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.[1]

1903 Spanish general election

26 April 1903 (Congress) 10 May 1903 (Senate)
All 403 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 180 (of 360) seats in the Senate 202 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
First party Second party Third party   Leader Francisco Silvela Eugenio Montero Ríos Nicolás Salmerón Party Conservative Liberal PUR Leader since 1899 1902 1903 Leader's seat Piedrahita Senator for life Barcelona Last election 99 seats[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2] 238 seats[lower-alpha 2] 15 seats[lower-alpha 3] Seats won 219 104 30 Seat change 120 134 15
Prime Minister before election Francisco Silvela Conservative Elected Prime Minister Francisco Silvela Conservative

Overview

Background

The Spanish Constitution of 1876 enshrined Spain as a constitutional monarchy, awarding the King power to name senators and to revoke laws, as well as the title of commander-in-chief of the army. The King would also play a key role in the system of the turno pacífico (English: Peaceful Turn) by appointing and toppling governments and allowing the opposition to take power. Under this system, the Conservative and Liberal parties alternated in power by means of election rigging, which they achieved through the encasillado, using the links between the Ministry of Governance, the provincial civil governors, and the local bosses (caciques) to ensure victory and exclude minor parties from the power sharing.

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.[2][3] Voting for the Cortes was on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, which comprised all national males over twenty-five, having at least a two-year residency in a municipality and in full enjoyment of their civil rights.[4]

For the Congress of Deputies, 95 seats were elected using a partial block voting in 27 multi-member constituencies, with the remaining 308 being elected under a one-round first-past-the-post system in single-member districts. Candidates winning a plurality in each constituency were elected. In constituencies electing eight seats or more, electors could vote for no more than three candidates less than the number of seats to be allocated; in those with more than four seats and up to eight, for no more than two less; in those with more than one seat and up to four, for no more than one less; and for one candidate in single-member districts. The Congress was entitled to one member per each 50,000 inhabitants, with each multi-member constituency being allocated a fixed number of seats: 8 for Madrid, 7 for Barcelona, 5 for Palma and Seville, 4 for Cartagena and 3 for Alicante, Almería, Badajoz, Burgos, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Jerez de la Frontera, La Coruña, Lugo, Málaga, Murcia, Oviedo, Pamplona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santander, Tarragona, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza. The law also provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated throughout the legislature.[2][5][6][7][8][9]

For the Senate, 180 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. The provinces of Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia were allocated four seats each, whereas each of the remaining provinces was allocated three seats, for a total of 150. The remaining 30 were allocated to a number of institutions, electing one seat each—the Archdioceses of Burgos, Granada, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Tarragona, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza; the Royal Spanish Academy; the Royal Academies of History, Fine Arts, Sciences, Moral and Political Sciences and Medicine; the Universities of Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Oviedo, Salamanca, Santiago, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza; and the Economic Societies of Friends of the Country from Madrid, Barcelona, León, Seville and Valencia. An additional 180 seats comprised senators in their own right—the Monarch's offspring and the heir apparent once coming of age; Grandees of Spain of the first class; Captain Generals of the Army and the Navy Admiral; the Patriarch of the Indies and archbishops; as well as other high-ranking state figures—and senators for life (who were appointed by the Monarch).[10][11]

Election date

The term of each House of the Cortes—the Congress and one-half of the elective part of the Senate—expired five 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.[2][5][10]

Results

Congress of Deputies

← Summary of the 26 April 1903 Congress of Deputies election results →

Parties and coalitions			Seats
			Seats	+/−
		Liberal Conservative Party (Ministerials) (PLC)	219	+120
		Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)^1	216	+119
		Basque Dynastics (Din.v)	3	+1
		Liberal Reformist Party (PLR)	7	–1
		Tetuanist Conservatives (T)	6	–1
Total Conservatives			232	+118
		Liberal Party (PL)	104	–134
		Monarchist Democratic Party (PDM)	9	+4
		Monarchist Democratic Party (PDM)	6	+6
		Puigcerverist Liberals (L.puig)	3	–2
		Independent Liberals (Lib.i)	0	–2
Total Liberals			113	–132
		Republican Union Party (PUR)^2	30	+15
		Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF)	7	+5
Total Republicans			37	+20
		Traditionalist Communion (CT)	7	+1
		Independent Catholics (Cató.i)	5	+3
		Integrist Party (PI)	1	–2
Total Carlists and Traditionalists			13	+2
	Regionalist League (LR)		5	–1
	National Union (UN)		0	–2
	Independents (Indep)		3	–4
Total			403	+1
Sources[12][13]

Seats (parties/coalitions) PLC   54.34% PL   25.81% PUR   7.44% PDM   2.23% CT   1.74% PLR   1.74% PRDF   1.74% T   1.49% LR   1.24% Cató.i   1.24% PI   0.25% Indep   0.74%

Seats (factions) Conservatives   57.57% Liberals   28.04% Republicans   9.18% Carlists   3.23% Others   1.99%

Notes

1. Aggregated data for PLC and LG in the 1901 election.
2. Data adjusted to account for the Basque Dynastic's alignment with the ruling coalition, alternating between the Conservatives and the Liberals from 1881 to 1914.
3. Aggregated data for FR, PRC, Blasq.rep and Rep.i in the 1901 election.

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 declaring dissolved the Congress of Deputies and the elective part of the Senate". Royal Decree of 26 March 1903 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
2. "Spanish Constitution of 1876". Act of 30 June 1876 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
3. "El Senado en la historia constitucional española". senado.es (in Spanish). Senate of Spain. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
4. Carreras de Odriozola & Tafunell Sambola 2005, pp. 1077.
5. "Electoral Law for Deputies to Cortes of 1890". Electoral Law of 26 June 1890 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
6. "Electoral Law for Deputies to Cortes of 1878". Electoral Law of 28 December 1878 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
7. "Laws approving the electoral divisions in the provinces of Seville and Barcelona". Laws of 5 July 1898 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 July 2018.
8. "Law providing that they will be four the Cortes deputies elected in the electoral constituency of Cartagena". Law of 7 August 1899 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 July 2018.
9. "Law establishing a constituency to elect three Cortes deputies, constituted by the four judicial parties of Ayamonte, Huelva, Moguer and la Palma". Law of 24 March 1902 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 July 2018.
10. "Electoral Law for Senators of 1877". Electoral Law of 8 February 1877 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
11. "Royal decree declaring dissolved the Congress of Deputies and the elective part of the Senate". Royal Decree of 16 March 1899 (PDF). Gazette of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
12. "Cortes election 26 April 1903". historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish). Electoral History. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
13. "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)