1898 Spanish general election

1898 Spanish general election

27 March 1898 (Congress) 10 April 1898 (Senate)
All 447 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 180 (of 360) seats in the Senate 224 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
First party Second party Third party   170x170px 170x170px 170x170px Leader Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Francisco Silvela Nicolás Salmerón Party Liberal Party (Spain, 1880) Conservative Republican Fusion Leader since 1872 1892 1898 Leader's seat Logroño Piedrahíta Gracia Last election 111 (C) · 43 (S) 12 (C) · 2 (S) 4 (C) · 3 (S) Seats won 324 (C) · 122 (S) 79 (C) · 36 (S) 15 (C) · 1 (S) Seat change 213 (C) · 79 (S) 65 (C) · 34 (S) 11 (C) · 2 (S)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   170x170px 170x170px 170x170px Leader Carlos O'Donnell Francisco Romero Robledo Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa Party Tetuanists Liberal Reformist Party (Spain) Carlist Leader since 1898 1898 1891 Leader's seat Senator (for life) Antequera — Last election 307 (C) · 118 (S) Did not contest 10 (C) · 2 (S) Seats won 7 (C) · 7 (S) 6 (C) · 1 (S) 6 (C) · 0 (S) Seat change 300 (C) · 111 (S) 6 (C) · 1 (S) 4 (C) · 2 (S)
Prime Minister before election Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Liberal Party (Spain, 1880) Prime Minister after election Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)

The 1898 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 27 March (for the Congress of Deputies) and on Sunday, 10 April 1898 (for the Senate), to elect the 8th Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain in the Restoration period. All 445 seats in the Congress of Deputies (plus two special districts) were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.

The election was called amid a period of political unstability following the assassination of previous prime minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo on 8 August 1897 by Italian anarchist Michele Angiolillo and the brief premiership of Marcelo Azcárraga. Respecting the turno system, Queen Regent Maria Christina appointed a new government under Liberal leader Práxedes Mateo Sagasta on 4 October 1897, tasking them with the formation of a new majority. In the wake of Cánovas's death, the Conservative Party was left in disarray: most party members aligned with the Conservative Union of Francisco Silvela, whereas some members—considering themselves as the true heirs of Cánovas' ideas—joined Duke of Tetuán Carlos O'Donnell's Tetuanist faction. Francisco Romero Robledo restablished his Liberal Reformist Party and fielded his own candidates. The result of the election was a Liberal majority in both chambers.

This would be the last Spanish general election to be held in Cuba and Puerto Rico, as the Spanish–American War, which would start only a few weeks after the election, would lead to the loss of all Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Overview

Electoral system

The Spanish Cortes were envisaged as "co-legislative bodies", based on a nearly perfect bicameral system. 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. Voting for the Cortes was on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, which comprised all national males over 25 years of age, having at least a two-year residency in a municipality and in full enjoyment of their civil rights. Following a 1897 reform, universal manhood suffrage was also extended to Cuba and Puerto Rico.

For the Congress of Deputies, 116 seats were elected using a partial block voting system in 34 multi-member constituencies, with the remaining 329 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. Additionally, literary universities, economic societies of Friends of the Country and officially organized chambers of commerce, industry and agriculture were entitled to one seat per each 5,000 registered voters that they comprised, which resulted in two additional special districts for the 1898 election. The law also provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated throughout the legislature.

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:

Seats	Constituencies
8	Madrid
6	Havana
5	Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca
4	Santa Clara, Seville
3	Alicante, Almería, Badajoz, Burgos, Cádiz, Cartagena, Córdoba, Granada, Jaén, Jerez de la Frontera, La Coruña, Lugo, Málaga, Matanzas, Mayagüez, Murcia, Oviedo, Pamplona, Pinar del Río, Ponce, San Juan Bautista, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santander, Santiago de Cuba, Tarragona, Valencia, Valladolid, Zaragoza

For the Senate, 180 seats were indirectly elected by the local councils and major taxpayers, with electors voting for delegates instead of senators. Elected delegates—equivalent in number to one-sixth of the councillors in each local council—would then vote for senators using a write-in, two-round majority voting system. 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. 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 Royal Spanish Academy; the royal academies of History, Fine Arts of San Fernando, Exact 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. 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; and the presidents of the Council of State, the Supreme Court, the Court of Auditors, the Supreme War Council and the Supreme Council of the Navy, after two years of service—as well as senators for life (who were appointed by the Monarch).

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 12 and 26 April 1896, which meant that the legislature's terms would have expired on 12 and 26 April 1901, respectively. The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election. There was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections for 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 26 February 1898, with the dissolution decree setting the election dates for 27 March (for the Congress) and 10 April 1898 (for the Senate) and scheduling for both chambers to convene on 25 April.

Background

File:1898-03-26, Blanco y Negro, Exposición pública de las listas electorales en la Plaza Mayor de Madrid, Irigoyen (cropped).jpg

Public exhibition of the electoral rolls at the Plaza Mayor in Madrid

The Spanish Constitution of 1876 enshrined Spain as a constitutional monarchy, awarding the monarch power to name senators and to revoke laws, as well as the title of commander-in-chief of the army. The monarch would also 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 system, the major political parties of the time, the conservatives and the liberals—characterized as elite parties with loose structures and dominated by internal factions led by powerful individuals—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.

Results

Congress of Deputies

← Summary of the 27 March 1898 Congress of Deputies election results →

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Parties and alliances		Popular vote		Seats
		Votes	%
	Liberals/Government-endorsed (L/a)			324
	Conservatives (C)			79
	Republican Fusion (FR)			15
	Tetuanists (T)			7
	Liberal Reformist Party (PLR)			6
	Traditionalist Communion (CT)			6
	Independents (INDEP)			10
Total				447
Votes cast / turnout
Abstentions
Registered voters
Sources

Seats
L/a			72.48%
C			17.67%
FR			3.36%
T			1.57%
PLR			1.34%
CT			1.34%
INDEP			2.24%

Senate

← Summary of the 10 April 1898 Senate of Spain election results →

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Parties and alliances		Seats
	Liberals/Government-endorsed (L/a)	122
	Conservatives (C)	36
	Tetuanists (T)	7
	Republican Fusion (FR)	1
	Liberal Reformist Party (PLR)	1
	Integrist Party (PI)	1
	Independents (INDEP)	2
	Archbishops (ARCH)	10
Total elective seats		180
Sources

Seats
L/a			67.78%
C			20.00%
T			3.89%
FR			0.56%
PLR			0.56%
PI			0.56%
INDEP			1.11%
ARCH			5.56%

Distribution by group

Summary of political group distribution in the 8th Restoration Cortes (1898–1899)

Group		Parties and alliances		C	S	Total
	L/a		Liberal Party (PL)	285	108	446
			Autonomist Liberal Party (PLA)	21	5
			Unconditional Spanish Party (PIE)	10	1
			Puerto Rican Autonomist Party (PAP)	6	1
			Constitutional Union of Cuba (UCC)	1	5
			Urquijists (U)	1	2
	C		Conservative Union (UC)	74	33	115
			Constitutional Union of Cuba (UCC)	5	2
			Unconditional Spanish Party (PIE)	0	1
	FR		National Republican Party (PRN)	9	1	16
			Independent Possibilists (P)	3	0
			Centralist Republican Party (PRC)	2	0
			Blasquist Republicans (RB)	1	0
	T		Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)	7	7	14
	PLR		Liberal Reformist Party (PLR)	6	1	7
	CT		Traditionalist Communion (CT)	6	0	6
	PI		Integrist Party (PI)	0	1	1
	INDEP		Independents (INDEP)	10	2	12
	ARCH		Archbishops (ARCH)	0	10	10
Total				447	180	627