1861 Italian general election

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1861 Italian general election
Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg
27 January 1861 (first round)
3 February 1861 (second round)
1865  

All 443 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
222 seats needed for a majority
 Majority partyMinority partyThird party
  Camillo Benso Cavour di Ciseri.jpg Urbano Rattazzi-lookingleft.jpg Giuseppe Mazzini.jpg
Leader Camillo Benso di Cavour Urbano Rattazzi Giuseppe Mazzini
Party Historical Right Historical Left Historical Far Left

1865 Italian general election map.svg
Constituencies used for the elections

Prime Minister before election

None

Elected Prime Minister

Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
Historical Right

General elections were held in Italy on 27 January 1861, with a second round on 3 February. [1] The newly elected Parliament first convened in Turin on 4 March 1861, where, thirteen days later, it declared the unification of the country as the Kingdom of Italy. [2]

Contents

The elections were carried out according to the 1848 electoral law of the Kingdom of Sardinia, in which only literate men over the age of 25 and paying a certain level of taxation were allowed to vote. [1] Candidates were elected in single member constituencies, with a second round required in cases when no candidates received over 50% of the vote or the equivalent of one-third of the registered voters in the constituency. [3] The Pope demanded that Catholics did not take part in the elections. [3]

Campaign

The Historical Right was led by the former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, a long-time statesman and a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification.

On the other hand, the bloc of the Historical Left was led by Urbano Rattazzi, a liberal politician who was among the founders of the Italian left-wing parliamentary group.

In opposition to the two main blocs there were a third party known as The Extreme, a far-left coalition, under the leadership of Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian revolutionary and a key figure of the Unification.

Only 418,696 men of a total population of around 22 million were entitled to vote. [4]

Parties and leaders

PartyIdeologyLeader
Historical Right Conservatism Camillo Benso di Cavour
Historical Left Liberalism Urbano Rattazzi
Historical Far Left Radicalism Giuseppe Mazzini

Results

Composition of the Chamber of Deputies in 1861 Il fischietto, 13 luglio 1861, Camera dei Deputati.jpg
Composition of the Chamber of Deputies in 1861

Right-wing candidates emerged as the largest bloc in Parliament with around 43% of the 443 seats. [5] They were largely aristocrats representing rentiers from the north of the country, and held moderate political views including loyalty to the crown and low government spending. [6] The right-wing leader Camillo Benso di Cavour was elected as the first Prime Minister in the history of Italy.

PartyVotes%% of seats
Historical Right 42.5
Historical Left 27.6
Historical Far Left 4.4
Others25.5
Total100
Total votes239,583
Registered voters/turnout418,69657.22
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

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References

  1. 1 2 Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p. 1047 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. Nohlen & Stöver, p. 1027
  3. 1 2 Nohlen & Stöver, p. 1039
  4. Nohlen & Stöver, p. 1049
  5. Nohlen & Stöver, p. 1082
  6. Nohlen & Stöver, p. 1028