1910 Spanish general election

1910 Spanish general election

← 1907 8 May 1910 (Congress) 22 May 1910 (Senate) 1914 →
All 404 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 180 (of 360) seats in the Senate 203 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
First party Second party Third party   Leader José Canalejas Antonio Maura Benito Pérez Galdós Party Liberal Conservative CRS Leader since 1910 1905 1909 Leader's seat Ferrol Palma Madrid Last election 85 seats[b][c] 246 seats[c] 7 seats[a] Seats won 215 115 27 Seat change 130 131 20
Prime Minister before election José Canalejas Liberal Prime Minister after election José Canalejas Liberal

The 1910 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 8 May and on Sunday, 22 May 1910, to elect the 14th Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 404 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.^[1]

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 El Turno Pacífico (the 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.^[2]

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-five, having at least a two-year residency in a municipality and in full enjoyment of their civil rights. Voting was compulsory except for those older than 70, the clergy, first instance judges and public notaries.^[5]

For the Congress of Deputies, 98 seats were elected using a partial block voting in 28 multi-member constituencies, with the remaining 306 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 ten seats or more, electors could vote for no more than four candidates less than the number of seats to be allocated; in those with more than eight seats and up to ten, for no more than three less; 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. Additionally, in single-member districts where candidates ran unopposed, as well as in multi-member districts where the number of candidates was equal or less than the number of seats to be filled, candidates were to be automatically proclaimed without an election. 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, Las Palmas, 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.^{[3][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

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).^[12][13]

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.^[3][7][12]

Results[]

Congress of Deputies[]

← Summary of the 8 May 1910 Congress of Deputies election results →

Parties and coalitions			Seats
			Seats	+/−
		Liberal Party (Ministerials) (PL)	215	+130
		Liberal Party (PL)1	213	+131
		Basque Dynastics (Din.v)	2	–1
Total Liberals			215	+130
		Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)2	115	–131
Total Conservatives			115	–131
		Republican–Socialist Conjunction (CRS)	27	+20
		Republicans (Rep)	16	+16
		Radical Republican Party (PRR)3	8	+7
		Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF)	2	–4
		Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	1	+1
		Republican Nationalist Federal Union (UFNR)4	11	–14
		Autonomist Republican Union Party (PURA)	2	±0
		Independent Republicans (Rep.i)	1	±0
Total Republicans			41	+6
		Traditionalist Communion (CT)2	10	–4
		Independent Catholics (Cató.i)	3	–1
		Integrist Party (PI)2	2	±0
		Independent Traditionalists (Trad.i)	0	–1
Total Carlists and Traditionalists			15	–6
		Regionalist League (LR)	10	–4
		Independent Catalan Nationalists (Nac.cat.i)	1	–1
Total Regionalists			11	–5
	Independents (Indep)		4	+3
	Vacants		3	+3
Total			404	±0
Sources[14][15]
Footnotes: 1 Liberal Party results are compared to the combined totals of the Liberal Party and Monarchist Democratic Party in the 1907 election. 2 Liberal Conservative Party, Traditionalist Communion and Integrist Party ran together under the Anti-Liberal Catholic Alliance label in Navarre. 3 Radical Republican Party results are compared to Anti-Solidarity Republicans totals in the 1907 election. 4 Republican Nationalist Federal Union results are compared to the combined totals of Republican Union Party and Republican Nationalist Centre in the 1907 election.

Notes[]

Bibliography[]

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

References[]

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)