1876 Spanish general election

A general election was held in Spain from Thursday, 20 January to Sunday, 23 January 1876 (for the Congress of Deputies) and from Tuesday, 1 February to Friday, 4 February 1876 (for the Senate), to elect the members of the Constituent Restoration Cortes. All 406 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 196 seats in the Senate. In the Canary Islands the election was held from 28 to 31 January, and in Puerto Rico it was held from 15 to 18 February.^[1] On 5 April 1877, another election to the Senate was held.^[2] The election was held under the Turno system.^[3]

1876 Spanish general election

← 1873 20–23 January 1876 (Congress) 1–4 February 1876 (Senate) 28–31 January 1876 (Canary Islands) 15–18 February 1876 (Puerto Rico) 1879 →
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 Prime Minister after election Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Conservative

The electorate consisted of 3,989,612 electors, about a 24.0% of the country population.^[4]

This was the first election to be held after the end of the First Spanish Republic in 1874. The Third Carlist War and the Ten Years' War were still unraveling at the time, meaning that elections were not held in some districts (namely, those in the Captaincy General of Cuba). The newly-founded Liberal Conservative Party of incumbent prime minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo won an overall majority of seats, paving the way for the adoption of the Spanish Constitution of 1876, which would mark the starting point of the Bourbon Restoration that would last until 1931.

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 Isabella II. An interim government led by Cánovas del Castillo was confirmed by King Alfonso XII upon disembarking in Barcelona on 9 January 1875.

Overview

Electoral system

The Spanish Cortes were envisaged as "co-legislative bodies", based on a nearly perfect bicameral system.^[5] Both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate had legislative, control and budgetary functions, sharing equal powers except for laws on contributions, public credit or military force, the first reading of which corresponded to Congress—which also had preeminence in case of disagreement—and impeachment processes against government ministers, in which each chamber had separate powers of indictment (Congress) and trial (Senate).^[6][7]

The laws of the Democratic Sexennium remained in force for the 1876 election, 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.^[8] Voting for each chamber of the Cortes was on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, which comprised all national males over 21 years of age and in full enjoyment of their civil rights, provided that they were not sentenced—by a final court ruling—to disqualification from political rights, to afflictive penalties not legally rehabilitated; neither being criminally prosecuted with a prison order not substituted with bail; nor homeless.^[9][10]

The Congress of Deputies was entitled to one member per each 40,000 inhabitants or fraction greater than 20,000, distributed among the provinces of Spain. Seats—406 for the 1876 election—were allocated to single-member districts and elected using plurality voting.^{[11][12][13][14]}

For the Senate, 200 seats were elected using an indirect, write-in, two-round majority voting system. Voters in each local council elected delegates—equivalent in number to one-sixth of the councillors, with an initial minimum of one—who, together with provincial deputies, would in turn vote for senators. Each province, as well as the whole of Puerto Rico, was allocated four seats.^[14][15][16]

The law provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated in the Congress throughout the legislature's term.^[17] By-elections were not required in the Senate, with vacancies being filled in the next regular election of the chamber.^[18]

Election date

The term of each chamber 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.^[19] The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election.^[20] Elections to renew one-quarter of the Senate were constitutionally required to be held concurrently with elections to the Congress, though the former could be renewed in its entirety in the case that a full dissolution was agreed by the monarch.^[19]

The Cortes had been officially dissolved since 8 January 1874, following the coup d'état of Pavía.^[21] The election decree was issued on 31 December 1875, setting the election dates for 20 January 1876 in peninsular Spain, 28 January in the Canaries and 15 February in Puerto Rico, and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 15 February.^[8]

Results

Congress of Deputies

← Summary of the 20–23 January 1876^[a] Congress of Deputies election results →

Parties and alliances		Popular vote		Seats
		Votes	%
	Liberal Conservative Party (Conservadores)			343
	Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)			328
	Unconditional Spanish Party (PIE)			15
	Constitutional Party (Constitucionales)			37
	Moderate Party (Moderados)			11
	Radical Democratic Party (Radicales)			5
	Parliamentary Centre (Centro)			4
	Federal Democratic Republican Party (Federales)			1
	Independents (Independientes)			5
Total				406
Votes cast / turnout
Abstentions
Registered voters
Sources[22][23][24][25][26]

Seats Conservative   84.48% Constitutional   9.11% Moderate   2.71% Radical   1.23% Centre   0.99% Fed. Republican   0.25% Independent   1.23%

Notes

1. In the Canary Islands the election was held from 28 to 31 January, and in Puerto Rico it was held from 15 to 18 February.