# 1891 Spanish general election

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A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 1 February (for the Congress of Deputies) and on Sunday, 15 February 1891 (for the Senate), to elect the members of the 5th Restoration Cortes. All 442 seats in the Congress of Deputies—plus four special districts—were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate. Following a 1890 reform of the electoral law that saw a change from the previous censitary suffrage to a universal manhood suffrage, the electorate was extended to about 27.3% of the country's population.
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 saw a large parliamentary majority for the Conservative Party after Antonio Cánovas del Castillo's return to power in July 1890, following the end of the Liberal "turn" of government between 1885 and 1890.

## Background

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 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. The result was "a liberal system without democracy".
The 1885–1890 Liberal Party government of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta (later to be known as the "Long Government" or "Long Parliament", in reference to it being only one during the Restoration period to last its full five year-term) had seen the introduction of many liberalizing reforms: the 1886 abolition of patronage removed the last vestiges of slavery in Cuba; the 1887 Associations Law allowed the establishment of trade unions such as the General Union of Workers (UGT), as well as the celebration of associative congresses and meetings; the 1888 Jury Law favoured freedom of press by ending prior censorship and taking the jurisdiction over crimes of slander or defamation away from the military; and the 1889 Civil Code which, coupled with the Administrative Procedure Law and the 1888 Administrative Litigation Law (also dubbed in Spanish as Ley Santamaría de Paredes), codified and structured the existing civil and administrative laws. Finally, the approval of a new electoral law in 1890 reinstated universal suffrage in Spain, definitely repealing censitary suffrage for all forthcoming elections and extending the franchise from about 5% of the population to nearly 25%. Other changes included a simplification of the electoral process as well as the removal of the system allowing deputies to be elected through cumulative voting.
Under the provisions of the Pact of El Pardo and in the context of the so-called "hunch crisis" (crisis de la corazonada)—based in a speech from General Arsenio Martínez-Campos in which he claimed to have the "hunch" that Sagasta's days in power were numbered, amid rumours of a Conservative plan to unveil a scandal that could hurt his reputation or that of his family—Sagasta resigned nearly at the end of his five year-mandate. This paved the way for the next "turn" of government under Antonio Cánovas del Castillo and his Conservative Party, who assumed office in July 1890 and started preparations for the general election that was to provide the new government with a parliamentary majority.

## 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, and judicial matters, where preeminence was vested in the Senate. 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. 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 125 Pt per territorial contribution (paid at least one year in advance) or per industrial or trade 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 those meeting the two-year residency requirement, provided that an educational or professional capacity could be proven.
For the Congress of Deputies, 107 seats were elected using a partial block voting system in 31 multi-member constituencies, with the remaining 335 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 four additional special districts for the 1891 election.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:
| Seats | Constituencies |
| 8 | Madrid |
| 6 | Havana$^{(–2)}$ |
| 5 | Barcelona, Palma |
| 4 | Santa Clara$^{(–1)}$, Seville |
| 3 | Alicante, Almería, Badajoz, Burgos, Cádiz, Cartagena, Córdoba, Granada, Jaén, Jerez de la Frontera, La Coruña, Lugo, Málaga, Matanzas, Murcia, Oviedo, Pamplona, Pinar del Río, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santander, Santiago de Cuba$^{(–1)}$, 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 other royal academies (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. 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 War Council and the Supreme Council of the 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 legislature's term.

### 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 4 and 25 April 1886, which meant that the legislature's terms would have expired on 4 and 25 April 1891, 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 (for the Senate in 1877) and no half-Senate elections taking place under the 1876 Constitution.
The Cortes were officially dissolved on 29 December 1890, with the dissolution decree setting the election dates for 1 February (for the Congress) and 15 February 1891 (for the Senate) and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 2 March.

## Candidates

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.
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: presidents of the Senate and the Congress of Deputies; deputies who had belonged to at least three different congresses or serving for at least eight terms; government ministers; other Grandees of Spain; Army's lieutenant generals and Navy's vice admirals, two years after their appointment; ambassadors after two years of service and plenipotentiary ministers after four; other members and prosecutors of the Council of State, the Supreme Court, the Court of Auditors, the Supreme War Council and the Supreme Council of the 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); as well as 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, as well as those who had ever held the office of senator before the promulgation of the 1876 Constitution.

## Results
### Congress of Deputies

← Summary of the 1 February 1891 Congress of Deputies election results → :
| Parties and alliances | Parties and alliances | Popular vote | Popular vote | Seats |
| Parties and alliances | Parties and alliances | Votes | % | Seats |
| | Liberal Conservative Party (PLC) | | | 285 |
| | Liberal Party (PL) | | | 100 |
| | Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) | | | 16 |
| | Republican Coalition (CR) | | | 15 |
| | Progressive Republican Party (PRP) | | | 12 |
| | Martists (M) | | | 8 |
| | Traditionalist Communion (Carlist) (CT) | | | 4 |
| | Integrist Party (PI) | | | 2 |
| | Independents (INDEP) | | | 4 |
| Total | Total | | | 446 |
| Votes cast / turnout | Votes cast / turnout | | | |
| Abstentions | Abstentions | | | |
| Registered voters | Registered voters | 4,800,000 | | |
| Sources |||||
Seats
PLC
63.90%
PL
22.42%
PLR
3.59%
CR
3.36%
PRP
2.69%
M
1.79%
CT
0.90%
PI
0.45%
INDEP
0.90% :

### Senate

← Summary of the 15 February 1891 Senate of Spain election results → :
| Parties and alliances | Parties and alliances | Seats |
| | Liberal Conservative Party (PLC) | 115 |
| | Liberal Party (PL) | 40 |
| | Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) | 8 |
| | Republican Coalition (CR) | 1 |
| | Martists (M) | 1 |
| | Traditionalist Communion (Carlist) (CT) | 1 |
| | Integrist Party (PI) | 1 |
| | Independents (INDEP) | 3 |
| | Archbishops (ARCH) | 10 |
| Total elective seats | Total elective seats | 180 |
| Sources |||
Seats
PLC
63.89%
PL
22.22%
PLR
4.44%
CR
0.56%
M
0.56%
CT
0.56%
PI
0.56%
INDEP
1.67%
ARCH
5.56% :

### Distribution by group

Summary of political group distribution in the 5th Restoration Cortes (1891–1893) :
| Group | Group | Parties and alliances | Parties and alliances | C | S | Total |
| | PLC | | Liberal Conservative Party (PLC) | 262 | 105 | 400 |
| | PLC | | Constitutional Union of Cuba (UCC) | 13 | 6 | 400 |
| | PLC | | Unconditional Spanish Party (PIE) | 9 | 2 | 400 |
| | PLC | | Basque Dynastics (Urquijist) (DV) | 1 | 2 | 400 |
| | PL | | Liberal Party (PL) | 86 | 32 | 140 |
| | PL | | Constitutional Union of Cuba (UCC) | 10 | 7 | 140 |
| | PL | | Unconditional Spanish Party (PIE) | 4 | 1 | 140 |
| | PLR | | Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) | 13 | 8 | 24 |
| | PLR | | Constitutional Union of Cuba (UCC) | 3 | 0 | 24 |
| | CR | | Possibilist Democratic Party (PDP) | 6 | 1 | 16 |
| | CR | | Federal Republican Party (PRF) | 5 | 0 | 16 |
| | CR | | Centralist Republican Party (PRC) | 2 | 0 | 16 |
| | CR | | Puerto Rican Autonomist Party (PAP) | 2 | 0 | 16 |
| | PRP | | Progressive Republican Party (PRP) | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| | M | | Martists (M) | 8 | 1 | 9 |
| | CT | | Traditionalist Communion (Carlist) (CT) | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| | PI | | Integrist Party (PI) | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| | INDEP | | Independents (INDEP) | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| | ARCH | | Archbishops (ARCH) | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | 446 | 180 | 626 |