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1886 Spanish general election

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Field	Value
election_name	1886 Spanish general election
country	Spain
flag_year	1785
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1884 Spanish general election
previous_year	1884
next_election	1891 Spanish general election
next_year	1891
seats_for_election
218 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
registered	807,175
turnout	475,712 (58.9%)
election_date	4 April 1886 (Congress)
25 April 1886 (Senate)
image1	[[File:Práxedes Mateo Sagasta b (cropped).jpg	170x170px]]
leader1	Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
party1	Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)
leader_since1	1880
leaders_seat1	Logroño
last_election1	43 D15 S
seats1	309 D123 S
seat_change1	266 D 108 S
image2	[[File:Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (cropped).jpg	170x170px]]
leader2	Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
party2	Conservative Party (Spain)
leader_since2	1874
leaders_seat2	Cieza
last_election2	342 D140 S
seats2	70 D33 S
seat_change2	272 D 107 S
image3	[[File:Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla 1895 (cropped).jpg	170x170px]]
leader3	Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla
party3	Republican Union (Spain, 1886)
leader_since3	1880
leaders_seat3	—
last_election3	9 D0 S
seats3	20 D3 S
seat_change3	11 D 3 S
image4	[[File:Francisco Romero Robledo 1906 (cropped).jpg	170x170px]]
leader4	Francisco Romero Robledo
party4	Liberal Reformist Party (Spain)
leader_since4	1886
leaders_seat4	Antequera
last_election4	Did not contest
seats4	11 D4 S
seat_change4	11 D 4 S
image5	[[File:Emilio Castelar (cropped).jpg	170x170px]]
leader5	Emilio Castelar
party5	Possibilist Democratic Party
leader_since5	1879
leaders_seat5	Huesca
last_election5	3 D2 S
seats5	11 D4 S
seat_change5	8 D 2 S
image6	[[File:José López Domínguez 1897 (cropped).jpg	170x170px]]
leader6	José López Domínguez
party6	Dynastic Left
leader_since6	1884
leaders_seat6	Coín
last_election6	36 D8 S
seats6	12 D2 S
seat_change6	24 D 6 S
title	Prime Minister
posttitle	Prime Minister after election
before_election	Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
before_party	Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)
after_election	Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
after_party	Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)

218 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies 25 April 1886 (Senate)

A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 4 April (for the Congress of Deputies) and on Sunday, 25 April 1886 (for the Senate), to elect the members of the 4th Cortes under the Spanish Constitution of 1876, during the Restoration period. All 434 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate. The electorate comprised about 4.6% of the country's population.

During this period, an informal system known as turno or turnismo was operated by 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 (the caciques), 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.

The election resulted in a large majority for the government-supported candidates of the Liberal Party, which was possible through Antonio Cánovas del Castillo's peaceful handover of power to Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, in what came to be known as the Pact of El Pardo. Running against the pact were the Francisco Romero Robledo and José López Domínguez-led factions within the Conservative and Liberal parties, respectively, but which failed to achieve decisive breakthroughs. The resulting legislature would come to be known as the "Long Parliament" (): lasting from 1886 to 1891, it would be the only one during the Restoration period to last its full five year-term.

Background

Do not edit this section here. The content of the section is meant to always be identical to the same section across all the Spanish general election pages for the period 1879-1923. It gets automatically copied here (enter WP:Transclusion in the Wikipedia search bar for technical details). To edit the text here enter "Template:Spanish general election background 1879-1923" into the search bar. But be aware that any edits there will effect multiple articles. Content specific to this article should be added in this article alone.

The death of King Alfonso XII in November 1885 at the age of 27, with no heir apparent and with her spouse—Maria Christina of Austria—poised to become queen regent under the provisions of the Constitution, had seen a prospective political crisis being averted by the informal Pact of El Pardo between Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, incumbent prime minister and Conservative leader, and Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, leader of the opposition Liberal Party. Through the agreement, both political parties—which had dominated Spanish politics during the early Restoration period—aimed to temporarily thwart the political fighting within the monarchist camp and provide stability to the regime by definitely establishing the turno system of alternance. As a result, Cánovas peacefully handed over power to Sagasta, who earlier that year had unified the various factions within his party under the "guarantee law": an agreement under which the Liberals would develop the freedoms and rights recognized during the Democratic Sexennium in exchange for the acceptance of shared sovereignty between the King and the Cortes, a basic principle of the 1876 Constitution. Francisco Romero Robledo, who vied for power with Francisco Silvela within the Conservative party, split off in protest to Cánovas's "voluntary relinquishment" of government. In May 1886, Maria Cristina would give birth to Alfonso XII's posthumous son, who would automatically become King Alfonso XIII.

The 1884–1885 period saw some calamities that the Cánovas government had to handle, such as the Alcudia bridge disaster, the 1884 Andalusian earthquake and the 1885 cholera epidemic in Spain. It also saw the Berlin Conference, the starting point of the Scramble for Africa, in which Spain successfully claimed and established the colony of Spanish Sahara. The Carolines Question, a conflict between Spain and the German Empire over the sovereignty of the Caroline Islands and Palau in the western Pacific, was resolved through arbitration by the Holy See.

Overview

Under the 1876 Constitution, 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, the first reading of which corresponded to Congress, and impeachment processes against government ministers, in which each chamber had separate powers of indictment (Congress) and trial (Senate).

Electoral system

Voting for the Congress of Deputies was on the basis of censitary suffrage, which comprised national males over 25 years of age fulfilling one of the following criteria:

Being taxpayers with a minimum quota of Pts 25 per territorial contribution (paid at least one year in advance) or Pts 50 per industrial subsidy (paid at least two years in advance);
Having a particular position (full academics in the royal academies; members of ecclesiastical councils, including parish priests; active public employees with a yearly salary of at least Pts 2,000; unemployed and retired public employees; general officers of the Army and Navy exempt from service, and retired military and naval chiefs and officers; reporters, chamber secretaries and court clerks of higher courts; and certified teachers);
Painters and sculptors awarded in national or international exhibitions;
Those having at least a two-year residency in a municipality, provided that an educational or professional capacity could be proven. In Cuba and Puerto Rico, the taxpayer quota requirement was set at Pts 125 for both the territorial contribution and the industrial or trade subsidy. Those who, having been subject to servitude, had not been freed and exempt from patronage for at least three years, were barred from being electors in the Spanish West Indies. As a result of the Basque Provinces and Navarre not paying territorial and industrial contributions in individual installments—owing to their special chartered regime—electors in those territories were instead required to prove having a capital of Pts 2,400 in real estate, crops or livestock, or Pts 4,800 in industry, commerce, profession or trade. Additionally, voters were required to not being sentenced—by a final court ruling—to perpetual disqualification from political rights or public offices, to afflictive penalties not legally rehabilitated at least two years in advance, nor to other criminal penalties that remained unserved at the time of the election; neither being legally incapacitated, bankrupt, insolvent, nor debtors of public funds (including their substitutes or jointly liable parties).

The Congress of Deputies was entitled to one seat per each 50,000 inhabitants. 111 members were elected in 31 multi-member constituencies using a partial block voting system: in constituencies electing eight seats, electors could vote for up to six candidates; in those with seven seats, for up to five candidates; in those with six seats, for up to four; and in those with four or five seats, for up to three candidates. The remaining 322 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. Up to ten additional members could be elected through cumulative voting in several single-member districts, provided that they obtained more than 10,000 votes overall.

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

Seats	Constituencies
8	Havana, Madrid
5	Barcelona, Palma, Santa Clara
4	Santiago de Cuba, 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, Tarragona, Valencia, Valladolid, Zaragoza

Voting for the elective part of the Senate was on the basis of censitary suffrage, which comprised archbishops and bishops (in the ecclesiastical councils); full academics (in the royal academies); rectors, full professors, enrolled doctors, directors of secondary education institutes and heads of special schools in their respective territories (in the universities); members with at least a three-year-old membership (in the economic societies of Friends of the Country); major taxpayers and Spanish citizens of age, being householders residing in Spain and in full enjoyment of their political and civil rights (for delegates in the local councils); 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 (in each economic society) or to one-sixth of the councillors (in each local council), 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 Royal Spanish; 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 Pts 60,000 (from their own real estate or from rights that enjoy the same legal consideration); 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, in the year prior to the election; nor holders of government-appointed offices, presidents of provincial deputations and members of their permanent commissions, local mayors and deputy mayors, as well as presidents of polling stations and civil, mining and forest engineers—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; additionally for the Spanish West Indies, those who, having been subject to servitude, had not been freed and exempt from patronage for at least ten years, were barred from running. 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.

For the Senate, eligibility was limited to Spanish citizens over 35 years of age and not subject to criminal prosecution, disfranchisement nor asset seizure, provided that they were entitled to be appointed as senators in their own right or belonged or had belonged to one of the following categories:

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.

Other causes of ineligibility for the Senate 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; debtors of public funds (including their substitutes or jointly liable parties); deputies; local councillors (except those in Madrid); and provincial deputies by their respective provinces.

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 27 April 1884 for the Congress and on 8 May 1884 for the Senate, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 27 April and 8 May 1889, 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 8 March 1886, with the dissolution decree setting election day for 4 April (Congress) and 25 April 1886 (Senate) and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 10 May.

Results

Congress of Deputies

Parties and alliances	Popular vote	Seats	Votes
Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)}}"		Liberal Party (PL)		309
Conservative Party (Spain)}}"		Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)		70
Republican Union (Spain, 1886)}}"		Republican Union (UR)		20
Dynastic Left}}"		Dynastic Left (ID)		12
Liberal Reformist Party (Spain)}}"		Liberal Reformist Party (PLR)		11
Possibilist Democratic Party}}"		Possibilist Democratic Party (PDP)		11
Traditionalist Communion}}"		Traditionalist Communion (Carlist) (CT)		1
Total	475,712		434
Votes cast / turnout	475,712	58.94
Abstentions	331,463	41.06
Registered voters	807,175
SourcesFor elected candidates by district, with political affiliations:

Senate

Parties and alliances	Seats
Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)}}"		Liberal Party (PL)
Conservative Party (Spain)}}"		Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)
Liberal Reformist Party (Spain)}}"		Liberal Reformist Party (PLR)
Possibilist Democratic Party}}"		Possibilist Democratic Party (PDP)
Republican Union (Spain, 1886)}}"		Republican Union (UR)
Dynastic Left}}"		Dynastic Left (ID)
Independent politician}}"		Independents (INDEP)
Nonpartisan}}"		Archbishops (ARCH)
Total elective seats	180
SourcesFor elected candidates by district, with political affiliations:

Distribution by group

Group	Parties and alliances	C	S	Total
Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)}}"		PL	Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)}}"		Liberal Party (PL)	290
Constitutional Union of Cuba}}"		Constitutional Union of Cuba (UCC)	12	8
Unconditional Spanish Party}}"		Unconditional Spanish Party (PIE)	6	2
Urquijists}}"		Basque Dynastics (Urquijist) (DV)	1	1
Conservative Party (Spain)}}"		PLC	Conservative Party (Spain)}}"		Liberal Conservative Party (PLC)	63
Constitutional Union of Cuba}}"		Constitutional Union of Cuba (UCC)	3	5
Unconditional Spanish Party}}"		Unconditional Spanish Party (PIE)	4	1
Republican Union (Spain, 1886)}}"		UR	Progressive Republican Party (Spain)}}"		Progressive Republican Party (PRP)	10
Autonomist Liberal Party}}"		Autonomist Liberal Party (PLA)	6	1
Liberal Reformist Party (Puerto Rico)}}"		Liberal Reformist Party of Puerto Rico (PLRP)	3	1
Federal Democratic Republican Party}}"		Federal Republican Party (PRF)	1	0
Liberal Reformist Party (Spain)}}"		PLR	Liberal Reformist Party (Spain)}}"		Liberal Reformist Party (PLR)	9
Constitutional Union of Cuba}}"		Constitutional Union of Cuba (UCC)	2	0
Possibilist Democratic Party}}"		PDP	Possibilist Democratic Party}}"		Possibilist Democratic Party (PDP)	11
Dynastic Left}}"		ID	Dynastic Left}}"		Dynastic Left (ID)	8
Unconditional Spanish Party}}"		Unconditional Spanish Party (PIE)	2	0
Constitutional Union of Cuba}}"		Constitutional Union of Cuba (UCC)	1	0
Independent politician}}"		Independents (INDEP)	1	0
Traditionalist Communion}}"		CT	Traditionalist Communion}}"		Traditionalist Communion (Carlist) (CT)	1
Independent politician}}"		INDEP	Urquijists}}"		Basque Dynastics (Urquijist) (DV)	0
Nonpartisan}}"		ARCH	Nonpartisan}}"		Archbishops (ARCH)	0
Total	434	180	614

Notes

References

Bibliography

References

De la Santa Cinta, Joaquín. (9 August 2017). "Presidentes del Consejo de Ministros durante el reinado de Alfonso XII. José Posada Herrera y de nuevo Antonio Cánovas del Castillo". El Correo de Pozuelo.
De la Santa Cinta, Joaquín. (16 August 2017). "Presidentes del Consejo de Ministros durante la Regencia de María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena: Práxedes Mateo Sagasta". El Correo de Pozuelo.
Montagut, Eduardo. (24 November 2016). "El Gobierno de Sagasta (1885-1890)". Nueva Tribuna.
Moral Roncal, Antonio Manuel. (3 May 2024). "Cánovas en 1885: una dimisión del gobierno anteponiendo el bienestar de los españoles". El Debate.
{{harvp. Constitution. 1876
{{harvp. Constitution. 1876
"Conocer el Senado. Temas clave. El Senado en la historia constitucional española". [[Senate of Spain]].
{{harvp. Law of 28 December. 1878
{{harvp. Law of 28 December. 1878
{{harvp. Law of 28 December. 1878
{{harvp. Constitution. 1876
{{harvp. Law of 28 December. 1878. Law of 1 January. 1871. Law of 21 March. 1883 and the {{harvp. Law of 23 June. 1885.
{{harvp. Decree of 1 April. 1871
{{harvp. Law of 28 December. 1878
{{harvp. Law of 8 February. 1877
(30 June 1881). "Real decreto determinando el número de Senadores que habrán de elegirse en cada una de las provincias con motivo de las próximas elecciones".
{{harvp. Constitution. 1876
{{harvp. Law of 8 February. 1877
{{harvp. Law of 9 January. 1879
{{harvp. Law of 8 February. 1877
{{harvp. Law of 28 December. 1878
{{harvp. Constitution. 1876
{{harvp. Law of 28 December. 1878
{{harvp. Law of 28 December. 1878
{{harvp. Law of 7 March. 1880
{{harvp. Constitution. 1876
{{harvp. Law of 8 February. 1877
{{harvp. Law of 8 February. 1877
{{harvp. Constitution. 1876
{{harvp. Constitution. 1876
{{harvp. Law of 8 February. 1877
(8 March 1886). "Real decreto declarando disueltos el Congreso de los Diputados y la parte electiva del Senado, señalando el día 10 de Mayo próximo para reunirse las Cortes, y disponiendo que las elecciones de Diputados se verifiquen el 4 de Abril, y las de Senadores el 25 del mismo".

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