1901 Spanish general election

1901 Spanish general election

← 1899 19 May 1901 (Congress) 2 June 1901 (Senate)[a] 1903 →
All 402 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 180 (of 360) seats in the Senate 202 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
First party Second party Third party   Leader Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Francisco Silvela Francisco Pi y Margall Party Liberal Conservative Republican Leader since 1880 1899 1901 Leader's seat Logroño Piedrahita Barcelona Last election 92 (C) · 47 (S) 240 (C) · 103 (S) 13 (C) · 1 (S)[b] Seats won 246 (C) · 116 (S) 76 (C) · 38 (S) 15 (C) · 3 (S) Seat change 154 (C) · 69 (S) 164 (C) · 65 (S) 2 (C) · 2 (S)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Germán Gamazo Carlos O'Donnell Francisco Romero Robledo Party Gamacist Tetuanist Liberal Reformist Leader since 1899 1898 1898 Leader's seat Medina del Campo Senator (for life) Antequera Last election 32 (C) · 7 (S) 11 (C) · 7 (S) 3 (C) · 1 (S) Seats won 15 (C) · 3 (S) 10 (C) · 7 (S) 12 (C) · 2 (S) Seat change 17 (C) · 4 (S) 1 (C) · 0 (S) 9 (C) · 1 (S)
Election results by Congress of Deputies electoral constituency and district
Prime Minister before election Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Liberal Prime Minister after election Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Liberal

The 1901 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 19 May (for the Congress of Deputies) and on Sunday, 2 June 1901 (for the Senate),^[a] to elect the 10th Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain in the Restoration period. All 402 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.

Conservative prime minister Francisco Silvela resigned in late 1900 as a result of social, political and ecclesiastical backlash resulting from both a tax reform adopted by finance minister Raimundo Fernández-Villaverde and the conflictive marriage between Princess of Asturias María de las Mercedes and Infante Carlos of Bourbon. Práxedes Mateo Sagasta was appointed prime minister in March 1901 and immediately sought a parliamentary majority for his Liberal Party by triggering a snap election.

The election resulted in a Liberal-dominated parliament that saw new parties such as the regenerationist National Union or the Catalan-based Regionalist League gaining seats for the first time. This would also be Sagasta's final electoral contest, as he would resign as prime minister in December 1902 and die on 5 January 1903, aged 77, as a result of bronchopneumonia.

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.^[6][7] 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.^[8][9]

For the Congress of Deputies, 92 seats were elected using a partial block voting system in 26 multi-member constituencies, with the remaining 310 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. The law also provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated throughout the legislature.^{[6][10][11][12]}

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:^{[11][13][14][15][16][17][18]}

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 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 special districts comprising 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 of San Fernando, Exact and Natural 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; 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).^[6][19][20]

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 16 April and 30 April 1899, which meant that the legislature's terms would have expired on 16 April and 30 April 1904, respectively. The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election.^[6][11][19] 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 24 April 1901, with the dissolution decree setting the election dates for 19 May (for the Congress) and 2 June 1901 (for the Senate) and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 11 June.^[21]

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.^[22][23]

In March 1899, Conservative leader Francisco Silvela formed a regenerationist government that aimed at implementing a program of reforms to address the causes of Spain's decline as a nation—self-evidenced in the country's defeat in the Spanish–American War and the subsequent loss of the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific.^[24] However, Silvela was forced to resign as prime minister and cede power to Marcelo Azcárraga in October 1900, following the political and social backlash resulting from both the tax reform adopted by his finance minister, Raimundo Fernández-Villaverde—which, while intending to reduce the national debt caused by the war in Cuba, sparked a wave of protests and strikes—and the conflictive marriage between Princess of Asturias María de las Mercedes and Infante Carlos of Bourbon—whose father had fought in the Carlist side during the Third Carlist War.^[25][26] Further, the Carlist uprising of October 1900—an attempted armed insurrection originating in Badalona which spread to other towns in Spain—had led to the suspension of constitutional freedoms in a number of provinces until March 1901,^[27][28] when the Liberal Party of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta took over.

Concurrently, regenerationism saw the rise of movements opposed to the Cánovas-founded political system. On the one hand, the establishment of the regenerationist National Union (UN) party by Joaquín Costa and Santiago Alba.^[29] On the other hand, Catalan regionalism was invigorated following Silvela's refusal to meet their demands and a growing disaffection among the Catalan middle and industrial classes, which in turn led to the establishment throughout 1899 of the liberal conservative Catalan National Centre (CNC) and the Regionalist Union (UR). Both parties would merge in April 1901 into the Regionalist League (LR).

← Summary of the 19 May 1901 Congress of Deputies election results →

Parties and alliances		Popular vote		Seats
		Votes	%
	Liberal Party (PL)			246
	Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)			76
	Republican Coalition (CR)			15
	Gamacist Liberals (G)			15
	Liberal Reformist Party (PLR)			12
	Tetuanist Conservatives (T)			10
	National Union (UN)			6
	Traditionalist Communion (Carlist) (CT)			6
	Regionalist League (LR)			6
	Blasquist Republicans (RB)			2
	Integrist Party (PI)			2
	Independents (INDEP)			6
Total				402
Votes cast / turnout
Abstentions
Registered voters
Sources[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]

← Summary of the 2 June 1901 Senate of Spain election results →

Parties and alliances		Seats
	Liberal Party (PL)	116
	Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)	38
	Tetuanist Conservatives (T)	7
	Republican Coalition (CR)	3
	Gamacist Liberals (G)	3
	Liberal Reformist Party (PLR)	2
	National Union (UN)	1
	Independents (INDEP)	1
	Archbishops (ARCH)	9
Total elective seats		180
Sources[a][39][40][41][42][43][44]