1873 Spanish general election

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Wikipedia

1873 Spanish general election
← 1872 (Aug) 10–13 May 1873 1876 →
All 424 seats in the Congress of Deputies[a]
213 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Francesc Pi i Margall Cristino Martos Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
Party Republican Radical Conservative–Constitutional
Leader's seat Barcelona — —
Seats won 343 20 7
Seat change Increase 265 Decrease 254 Decrease 7
Prime Minister before election

Estanislao Figueras
Republican

 Prime Minister after election

Estanislao Figueras
Republican

A general election was held in Spain from Saturday, 10 May to Tuesday, 13 May 1873, to elect the members of the Constituent Cortes in the First Spanish Republic. 406 of 424 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election. The election in Cuba was indefinitely postponed.[a]

The election was held with universal male suffrage. It was held in very unorthodox conditions and drew a very low voter turnout, as neither the Carlist or Alfonsist monarchists participated. The same happened with centralist and unitarian Republicans, or even the incipient labor organizations affiliated with the First International, who held a campaign of election boycott. This left the republic with a serious lack of legitimacy. The Federal Democratic Republican Party won the election.

Background

The political situation in Spain, worsened due to the outbreak of the Third Carlist War, the intensification of the Ten Years' War in Cuba, the breakup of the governing coalition—over frictions among its component factions, led by Prime Minister Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla and State minister Cristino Martos—and a conflict between the prime minister and the Artillery Corps, led King Amadeo I to finally abdicate the Spanish throne on 11 February 1873. As a consequence, the Spanish Cortes, reconstituted into a National Assembly in joint and permanent session, proclaimed the First Spanish Republic.[4]

Overview

Under the 1873 Agreement declaring the Republic as the form of Government, the Spanish Cortes envisaged under the 1869 Constitution were reassembled as a National Assembly in a joint and permanent session of both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate.[5] The electoral law of the Democratic Sexennium remained in force, with several amendments, including the abolition of the Senate and the conversion of the Congress into a constituent assembly.[6]

Electoral system

Voting for 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.[7][8][9][10] In Puerto Rico, voting was on the basis of censitary suffrage, comprising males of age fulfilling one of the following criteria: being literate or taxpayers in any concept.[11][12][13]

The Congress of Deputies was entitled to one seat per each 40,000 inhabitants or fraction greater than 20,000. 406 members were elected in single-member districts using plurality voting and distributed among the provinces of Spain and Puerto Rico in proportion to their populations.[14][15][16][17] 18 additional seats were awarded to three multi-member constituencies in the island of Cuba, where elections (as well as the updating of district divisions to comply with the new electoral law) were indefinitely postponed due to the military situation.[2][3][18]

The law provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated in the Congress throughout the legislative term.[19]

Eligibility

Spanish citizens with the legal capacity to vote could run for election, provided that they were not holders of government-appointed offices.[20][21] A number of positions were exempt from ineligibility, provided that no more than 40 deputies benefitted from these:[22]

Other causes of ineligibility were imposed on territorial-level officers in government bodies and institutions—during their tenure of office and up to three months after their dismissal—in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction; contractors of public works or services; tax collectors and their guarantors; and debtors of public funds (including their substitutes or jointly liable parties);[23] additionally for Puerto Rico, ineligibility extended to those having been convicted of crimes related to the repression of slave trade.[24] Incompatibility provisions extended to the impossibility of simultaneously holding the positions of deputy, provincial deputy and local councillor, as well as serving by two or more parliamentary constituencies.[25][26]

Results

Congress of Deputies

← Summary of the 10–13 May 1873 Congress of Deputies election results →
Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats
Votes % Total +/−
Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF) 343+265
Radical Democratic Party (PDR) 20−254
Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) 15+1
Conservative–Constitutional Coalition (C–C) 7−7
Alfonsist Conservatives (A) 3−6
Independent Republicans (R.IND) 1−1
Independent Carlists (CARL.IND) n/an/a 0−3
Liberal Conservative Party (PLC) n/an/a 0−1
Independents (INDEP) 17+6
Vacant[a] 18±0
Total 1,883,778 424±0
Votes cast / turnout 1,883,77840.97
Abstentions 2,713,70059.03
Registered voters 4,597,478
Sources[27][28][29][30]
Seats
PRDF
 
 80.90%
PDR
 
 4.72%
PLR
 
 3.54%
C–C
 
 1.65%
A
 
 0.71%
R.IND
 
 0.24%
INDEP
 
 4.01%
Vacant
 
 4.25%

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Elections in Cuba were indefinitely postponed due to the outbreak of the Ten Years' War, resulting in the vacancy of the 18 seats allocated to the island.[1][2][3]

References

  1. ↑ Roldán de Montaud 1999, p. 246.
  2. 1 2 Decree of 1 April (1871), explanatory statement: "On the island of Cuba, the work of preparing electoral lists was hampered by the state of war that prevailed there and the necessary replacement of the electoral districts established by the decree, now law, of 14 December 1868, with new districts. [Spanish: En la isla de Cuba embarazaron los trabajos de formación de las listas electorales el estado de guerra que allí se sostiene y la precisa sustitución por nuevos distritos de las circunscripciones de elección establecidos por el decreto, hoy ley, de 14 de diciembre de 1868.]".
  3. 1 2 Law of 11 March (1873), art. 2
  4. ↑ Agreement of 11 February (1873), art. 1
  5. ↑ Agreement of 11 February (1873), art. 1
  6. ↑ Law of 11 March (1873), art. 1
  7. ↑ Law of 20 August (1870), art. 1.
  8. ↑ Law of 11 March (1873), art. 3
  9. ↑ Ortega Álvarez & Santaolaya Machetti 1996, pp. 84–85.
  10. ↑ Carreras de Odriozola & Tafunell Sambola 2005, p. 1076.
  11. ↑ Decree of 1 April (1871), art. 7.
  12. ↑ Law of 11 March (1873), art. 3
  13. ↑ López Domínguez 1976, p. 291.
  14. ↑ Constitution (1869), art. 65.
  15. ↑ Law of 20 August (1870), arts. 108–112.
  16. ↑ Law of 1 January (II) (1871), art. 1.
  17. ↑ Decree of 1 April (1871), arts. 2–3.
  18. ↑ Decree of 14 December (1868), demonstrative chart.
  19. ↑ Law of 20 August (1870), arts. 130–132.
  20. ↑ Constitution (1869), art. 66.
  21. ↑ Law of 20 August (1870), arts. 4 & 12.
  22. ↑ Law of 1 January (I) (1871), arts. 1–2.
  23. ↑ Law of 20 August (1870), arts. 7–8.
  24. ↑ Decree of 1 April (1871), art. 9.
  25. ↑ Law of 20 August (1870), arts. 13–14.
  26. ↑ Decree of 1 April (1871), art. 10.
  27. ↑ BUCM 1997, pp. 370–371 & 400.
  28. ↑ Carreras de Odriozola & Tafunell Sambola 2005, pp. 1092–1093.
  29. ↑ López Domínguez 1976, pp. 306–309 & 736–743.
  30. ↑ Lozano, Carles. "Elecciones a Cortes de la República 10 de mayo de 1873". Historia Electoral.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 September 2025.

Bibliography