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1886 Spanish general election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 4 April (for the Congress of Deputies) and on Sunday, 25 April 1886 (for the Senate), to elect the members of the 4th Restoration Cortes. All 434[a] seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate. The electorate comprised about 4.6% of the country's population.[1]
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During this period, an informal system colloquially known as El Turno Pacífico (English: The Peaceful Turn) was operated by the two main parties in the country—the Conservatives and the Liberals—to determine in advance the result of the election, often through the encasillado, caciquism and election rigging, ensuring that both parties would have alternating periods in power. As a result, elections were often neither truly free nor fair, though they could be more competitive in the country's urban centres where this system was weaker.
The election resulted in a large majority for the government-supported candidates of the Liberal Party, which was possible through Antonio Cánovas del Castillo's peaceful handover of power to Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, in what came to be known as the Pact of El Pardo. Running against the pact were the Francisco Romero Robledo and José López Domínguez-led factions within the Conservative and Liberal parties, respectively, but which failed to achieve decisive breakthroughs. The resulting legislature would come to be known as the "Long Parliament" (Spanish: Parlamento Largo): lasting from 1886 to 1891, it would be the only one during the Restoration period to last its full five year-term.[2]
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Background
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The Spanish Constitution of 1876 enshrined Spain as a constitutional monarchy, awarding the monarch the right of legislative initiative together with the bicameral Cortes; the capacity to veto laws passed by the legislative body; the power to appoint senators and government ministers; as well as the title of commander-in-chief of the army and navy. The monarch would play a key role in the system of el turno pacífico (English: the Peaceful Turn) by appointing and dismissing governments and allowing the opposition to take power. Under this informal system, the two major political parties at the time, the Conservatives and the Liberals—characterized as elite parties with loose structures dominated by internal factions, each led by powerful individuals—alternated in power by means of election rigging, which they achieved through the encasillado, assignating the seats in the general elections before they were held by 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.[3][4] The result was "a liberal system without democracy".[5]
The death of King Alfonso XII in November 1885 at the age of 27, with no heir apparent and with her spouse—Maria Christina of Austria—poised to become queen regent under the provisions of the Constitution, had seen a prospective political crisis being averted by the informal Pact of El Pardo between Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, incumbent prime minister and Conservative leader, and Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, leader of the opposition Liberal Party. Through the agreement, both political parties—which had dominated Spanish politics during the early Restoration period—aimed to temporarily thwart the political fighting within the monarchist camp and provide stability to the regime by definitely establishing the turno system of alternance. As a result, Cánovas peacefully handed over power to Sagasta, who earlier that year had unified the various factions within his party under the "guarantee law": an agreement under which the Liberals would develop the freedoms and rights recognized during the Democratic Sexenium in exchange for the acceptance of shared sovereignty between the King and the Cortes, a basic principle of the 1876 Constitution.[6][7] Francisco Romero Robledo, who vied for power with Francisco Silvela within the Conservative party, split off in protest to Cánovas' "voluntary relinquishment" of government.[8][9][10] In May 1886, Maria Cristina would give birth to Alfonso XII's posthumous son, who would automatically become King Alfonso XIII.[11]
The 1884–1885 period saw some calamities that the Cánovas government had to handle, such as the Alcudia bridge disaster, the 1884 Andalusian earthquake and the 1885 cholera epidemic in Spain. It also saw the Berlin Conference, the starting point of the Scramble for Africa, in which Spain successfully claimed and established the colony of Spanish Sahara. The Carolines Question, a conflict between Spain and the German Empire over the sovereignty of the Caroline Islands and Palau in the western Pacific, was resolved through arbitration by the Holy See.[6]
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Overview
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Electoral system
The Spanish Cortes were envisaged as "co-legislative bodies", based on a nearly perfect bicameral system.[12] 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, and judicial matters, where preeminence was vested in the Senate.[13][14] Voting for the Cortes was on the basis of censitary suffrage, which comprised national males over 25 years of age fulfilling one of the following criteria: being taxpayers with a minimum quota of 25 Pt per territorial contribution (paid at least one year in advance) or 50 Pt per industrial subsidy (paid at least two years in advance); having a particular position (royal academy numerary members; ecclesiastic individuals; active, unemployed or retired public employees; military personnel; widely recognized painters and sculptors; public teachers; etc.); or having at least a two-year residency in a municipality, provided that an educational or professional capacity could be proven.[15][16][17] In Cuba and Puerto Rico, the taxpayer quota requirement was set at 125 Pt for both the territorial contribution and the industrial or trade subsidy; additionally for Cuba, those subject to ineligibility causes were barred from being electors, as well as those who, having been subject to servitude, had not been freed and exempt from patronage for at least three years.[18][19][20]
The Congress of Deputies was entitled to one member per each 50,000 inhabitants. 111 seats were distributed among 31 multi-member constituencies and elected using a partial block voting system: in constituencies electing eight seats, electors could vote for up to six candidates; in those with seven seats, for up to five candidates; in those with six seats, for up to four; and in those with four or five seats, for up to three candidates. The remaining seats—322 for the 1886 election—were allocated to single-member districts and elected using plurality voting. Additionally, up to ten deputies could be elected through cumulative voting in several single-member constituencies, provided that they obtained more than 10,000 votes overall.[21][22][23]
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:[24][25][26][27]
For the Senate, 180 seats were elected using a write-in, two-round majority voting system.[28] Local councils and major taxpayers elected delegates—equivalent in number to one-sixth of the councillors in each local council—who would in turn vote for senators.[29] The provinces of Álava, Albacete, Ávila, Biscay, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Guipúzcoa, Huelva, Logroño, Matanzas, Palencia, Pinar del Río, Puerto Príncipe, Santa Clara, Santander, Santiago de Cuba, Segovia, Soria, Teruel, Valladolid and Zamora were allocated two seats each, whereas each of the remaining provinces was allocated three seats, for a total of 147.[30][31][32] The remaining 33 were allocated to special districts comprising a number of institutions, electing one seat each—the archdioceses of Burgos, Granada, Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Cuba, Seville, Tarragona, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza; the six oldest royal academies (the Royal Spanish; History; Fine Arts of San Fernando; Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences; Moral and Political Sciences and Medicine); the universities of Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Havana, Oviedo, Salamanca, Santiago, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza; and the economic societies of Friends of the Country from Madrid, Barcelona, Havana–Puerto Rico, León, Seville and Valencia.[31][33]
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 with an annual income of at least 60,000 Pt (from their own real estate or from rights that enjoy the same legal consideration); Captain Generals of the Army and the Navy Admiral; the Patriarch of the Indies and archbishops; and the presidents of the Council of State, the Supreme Court, the Court of Auditors, the Supreme Council of War and Navy, after two years of service—as well as senators for life appointed directly by the monarch.[34]
The law provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated in both the Congress and Senate throughout the legislature's term.[35][36]
Election date
The term of each chamber 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 previous Congress and Senate elections were held on 27 April and 8 May 1884, which meant that the legislature's terms would have expired on 27 April and 8 May 1889, respectively. The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election.[37][38] There was no constitutional requirement for concurrent elections to the Congress and the Senate, nor for the elective part of the Senate to be renewed in its entirety except in the case that a full dissolution was agreed by the monarch. Still, there was only one case of a separate election (for the Senate in 1877) and no half-Senate elections taking place under the 1876 Constitution.
The Cortes were officially dissolved on 8 March 1886, with the dissolution decree setting the election dates for 4 April (for the Congress) and 25 April 1886 (for the Senate) and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 10 May.[39]
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Candidates
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For the Congress, Spanish citizens of age and with the legal capacity to vote could run for election, provided that they were not sentenced to perpetual disqualification from political rights or public offices by a final court's decision, or to afflictive penalties if no legal rehabilitation had been obtained at least two years in advance of the election, or to other criminal penalties if the serving of the sentence could not be proven before taking the office of deputy. Other causes of ineligibility were imposed on those physically or morally incapacitated; bankrupt or insolvent persons who had not paid out their debts; and contractors of public works or services; as well as a number of territorial-level officers in government bodies and institutions being barred from running, during their tenure of office, in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction.[40][41]
For the Senate, eligibility was limited to those entitled to be appointed as senators in their own right or those who had belonged to one of the following categories:[42][43]
- The president of the Senate and the president of the Congress of Deputies;
- Deputies who had belonged to at least three different congresses or serving for at least eight terms;
- Government ministers;
- Bishops;
- Grandees of Spain not eligible as senators in their own right;
- Army's lieutenant generals and Navy's vice admirals, two years after their appointment;
- Ambassadors after two years of service and plenipotentiaries after four;
- Other members and prosecutors of the Council of State, the Supreme Court, the Court of Auditors, the Supreme Council of War and Navy, and the Dean of the Court of Military Orders, after two years of service;
- Presidents and directors of the Royal Spanish Academy and the other royal academies (History; Fine Arts of San Fernando; Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences; Moral and Political Sciences and Medicine);
- Full academics of the aforementioned corporations occupying the first half of the seniority scale in their corps; first-class general inspectors of the corps of Civil Engineers, Mines and Forests; full-time university professors with at least four years of seniority in their category and practice (and provided that those had an annual income of at least 7,500 Pt from their own property, salaries from jobs that cannot be lost except for legally proven cause, or from retirement, withdrawal or termination);
- Those who had an annual income of 20,000 Pt or were taxpayers with a minimum quota of 4,000 Pt in direct contributions at least two years in advance, as long as they were of the Spanish nobility, had been previously deputies, provincial deputies or mayors in provincial capitals or towns over 20,000 inhabitants;
- Those who had ever held the office of senator before the promulgation of the 1876 Constitution.
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Results
Congress of Deputies
Senate
Distribution by group
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By-elections
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Summary of Congress of Deputies and Senate by-elections in the 1886–1890 period.[48][49] Where seats changed political affiliation at the election, the result is highlighted:
Congress
Senate
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Notes
- Including one seat by cumulative voting.
- Martín Sánchez was initially proclaimed as elected candidate, but the Congress declared his ineligibility on 12 June 1886, after he was found to have been serving as secretary of the Board of Agriculture, Industry and Trade, and Secretary of the Standing Committee on Grain Deposits, at the time of the election, This was in breach of Article 9.1 of the Congress' electoral law, relating to causes of ineligibility.[53]
- As a result of a tie, both Francisco Ansaldo y Otalora (PL) and Iván Aranguren y Alzaga (ID) were initially proclaimed as elected candidates. On 2 June 1886, the Congress ordered a recount, determined the impossibility of resolving the tie, nullified the results and ordered a by-election for 18 July, which was won by Ansaldo y Otalora.[54]
- De la Rosa García was initially proclaimed as elected candidate, but the Congress declared his ineligibility on 19 July 1886, after he was found to have served as a member of the permanent commission of the provincial deputation of Seville until November 1885, with the election having been held before one year had elapsed. This was in breach of Articles 9.2 and 10 of the Congress' electoral law, relating to causes of ineligibility.[59] A by-election on 22 August was won by Montejo y Rica against De la Rosa after a recount, with the latter's cause of ineligibility still being in force.[60]
- As per Article 31 of the Constitution, serving deputies that were appointed by the Government or the Royal Household to a position different than a cabinet-level minister, closed rank, commission with salary, honors or decorations, were deemed to be automatically dismissed from their parliamentary position within fifteen days, unless they resigned their seats or notified Congress of their resignation from the appointment.
- Acosta y Calvo was initially proclaimed as elected candidate, but the Congress declared his ineligibility on 1 February 1887, after he was found to have been a contractor for the printing of documents for the Finance offices in Puerto Rico until June 1885, the printing of Lottery tickets until November 1885, and the printing of the Official Gazette of Puerto Rico until February 1886, with the election having been held before one year had elapsed. This was in breach of Articles 8.7, 9.5 and 10 of the Congress' electoral law, relating to causes of ineligibility.[98]
- Gustavo de Reyna y Latorre (PLC) was initially proclaimed as elected candidate, but a recount resulted in the seat being awarded to Padierna instead.
- Crespo y Visiedo was initially proclaimed as elected candidate, but the Congress declared his ineligibility on 24 January 1887, after he was found to have been serving as a member of the permanent commission of the provincial deputation of Matanzas at the time of the election. This was in breach of Article 9.2 of the Congress' electoral law, relating to causes of ineligibility.[124]
- José Gassó y Martí (M) was initially proclaimed as elected candidate. On 13 July 1889, the Congress ordered a recount, determined the existence of artificial results and dead people voting, nullified the results and ordered a by-election for 18 August, which was won by Pedro Cort y Gisbert (PL).[222]
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References
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