1893 Spanish general election
A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 5 March and on Sunday, 19 March 1893, to elect the members of the 6th Cortes Generales#Restoration under the Spanish Constitution of 1876, during the Restoration period. All 442 seats in the Congress of Deputies—plus five special districts—were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.
Since the Pact of El Pardo, an informal system known as turno or turnismo was operated by the monarchy and the country's two main parties—the Conservatives and the Liberals—to determine in advance the outcome of elections by means of electoral fraud, often achieved through the territorial clientelistic networks of local bosses, ensuring that both parties would have rotating 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 caciquism was weaker.
In this election, the ruling Liberal Party of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta secured a large majority in the Cortes, granting him the required parliamentary support for a new "turn" in power. This came following the downfall of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo's Conservative government in December 1892 as a result of an internal split by former minister Francisco Silvela over the issue of political regeneration. The election also saw a strong performance by pro-republican parties, which went on to win in the two main Spanish cities—Madrid and Barcelona—and secure over 10% of the seats in the Congress.
Background
The 1890–1892 government led by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo was characterized by the preservation of the political and legal reforms made by the previous Liberal government and a protectionist economic policy—seeing the approval of the "Cánovas tariff" to imports, aimed at protecting large Castilian farmers and Catalan textile manufacturers from the competition of American wheat and English fabrics. The government fell apart as a result of governance minister Francisco Silvela breaking out of the Conservative Party in November 1891 over a lack of political regeneration—self-evidenced in the unveiling of administrative irregularities and corruption in the City Council of Madrid—but also because of an internal strife with long-time rival Francisco Romero Robledo, who had returned to the Conservatives's fold following the failed experience of his Liberal Reformist Party. In addition, Cánovas's tenure had been plagued by peasant and anarchist rebellions—such as the Jerez uprising or an attempted plot to plant explosives in the Cortes parliament building—with labour conflicts, strikes and protests being commonplace. The government's repression of these movements was frequently regarded as disproportionately severe, which would in turn lead to an increase in anarchist violence throughout the 1890s.Following Cánovas's resignation in December 1892, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta of the Liberal Party was tasked by Queen Regent Maria Christina with forming a new government and holding a snap election. Shortly before the election, Sagasta's government passed several decrees softening the requisites for being eligible to vote in the overseas territories of Cuba and Puerto Rico, as well as a reorganization of the electoral districts in the latter that saw the creation of several multi-member constituencies.
Overview
Under the 1876 Constitution, the Spanish Cortes Generales 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, the first reading of which corresponded to Congress, and impeachment processes against government ministers, in which each chamber had separate powers of indictment and trial.Electoral system
Voting for the Congress of Deputies 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. In Cuba and Puerto Rico, voting was on the basis of censitary suffrage, comprising males of age fulfilling one of the following criteria:- Being taxpayers with a minimum quota of $5 in Cuba and $10 in Puerto Rico—following a 1892 reform—per territorial contribution or per industrial or trade subsidy ;
- Having a particular position ;
- Painters and sculptors awarded in national or international exhibitions;
- Those meeting the two-year residency requirement, provided that an educational or professional capacity could be proven.
The Congress of Deputies was entitled to one seat per each 50,000 inhabitants. 116 members were elected in 34 multi-member constituencies using a partial block voting system: 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; and in those with more than one seat and up to four, for no more than one less. The remaining 326 seats were elected in single-member districts using plurality voting and distributed among the provinces of Spain and the Spanish West Indies in proportion to their populations. Additionally, literary [List of List of universities in Spain|universities in Spain|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 five additional special districts.
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 |
| 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 |
Voting for the elective part of the Senate was on the basis of censitary suffrage, which comprised archbishops and bishops ; full academics ; rectors, full professors, enrolled doctors, directors of secondary education institutes and heads of special schools in their respective territories ; members with at least a three-year-old membership ; major taxpayers and Spanish citizens of age, being householders residing in Spain and in full enjoyment of their political and civil rights ; and provincial deputies.
180 seats in the Senate were elected using an indirect, write-in, two-round majority voting system. Voters in the economic societies, the local councils and major taxpayers elected delegates—equivalent in number to one per each 50 members or to one-sixth of the councillors, with an initial minimum of one—who, together with other voting-able electors, would in turn vote for senators. 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 six oldest royal academies ; the universities of Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Havana, Oviedo, Salamanca, Santiago, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza; and the economic societies of 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 with an annual income of at least Pts 60,000 ; captain generals of the Army and admirals of the Navy; the Patriarch of the Indies and archbishops; and the presidents of the Council of State, the Supreme Court, the Court of Auditors and the Supreme Council of War and Navy, after two years of service—as well as senators for life appointed directly by the monarch.
The law provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated in both the Congress and Senate throughout the legislative term.
Eligibility
For the Congress, Spanish citizens of age, of secular status, in full enjoyment of their civil rights and with the legal capacity to vote could run for election, provided that they were not contractors of public works or services, within the territorial scope of their contracts; nor holders of government-appointed offices and presidents or members of provincial deputations—during their tenure of office and up to one year after their dismissal—in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction, except for government ministers and civil servants in the Central Administration. A number of other positions were exempt from ineligibility, provided that no more than 40 deputies benefitted from these:- Civil, military and judicial positions with a permanent residence in Madrid and a yearly public salary of at least Pts 12,500;
- The holders of a number of positions: the president, prosecutors and chamber presidents of the territorial court of Madrid; the rector and full professors of the Central University of Madrid; inspectors of engineers; and general officers of the Army and Navy based in Madrid.
- Those who had ever served as senators before the promulgation of the 1876 Constitution; and deputies having served in at least three different congresses or eight terms;
- The holders of a number of positions: presidents of the Senate and the Congress; government ministers; bishops; grandees of Spain not eligible as senators in their own right; and presidents and directors of the royal academies;
- Provided an annual income of at least Pts 7,500 from either their own property, salaries from jobs that cannot be lost except for legally proven cause, or from retirement, withdrawal or termination: full academics of the aforementioned corporations on the first half of the seniority scale in their corps; first-class inspectors-general of the corps of civil, mining and forest engineers; and full professors with at least four years of seniority in their category and practice;
- Provided two prior years of service: Army's lieutenant generals and Navy's vice admirals; and 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;
- Ambassadors after two years of service and plenipotentiaries after four;
- Those with an annual income of Pts 20,000 or were taxpayers with a minimum quota of Pts 4,000 in direct contributions at least two years in advance, provided that they either belonged to the Spanish nobility, had been previously deputies, provincial deputies or mayors in provincial capitals or towns over 20,000 inhabitants.
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 elections were held on 1 February 1891 for the Congress and on 15 February 1891 for the Senate, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 1 and 15 February 1896, 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 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 and no half-Senate elections taking place under the 1876 Constitution.
The Cortes were officially dissolved on 5 January and 4 February 1893, with the dissolution decree setting election day for 5 March and 19 March 1893 and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 5 April.