Following the approval and promulgation of the Spanish Constitution of 1869, which enshrined Spain as a constitutional monarchy, the Constituent Cortes elected Amadeo I as new King of Spain on 16 November 1870, who was sworn-in on 2 January 1871. Amadeo's main supporter, Prime MinisterJuan Prim, was assassinated on 27 December, with former RegentFrancisco Serrano being appointed by the King to form a new coalition cabinet formed by the Liberal Union, the Progressive Party and the Cimbrios Democrats. Amadeo's unpopularity—resulting from him being an Italian foreigner—led Serrano to dissolve the Cortes and call a snap election as a show of legitimacy for the new monarch. In order to ensure the victory of the Monarchist–Democratic Coalition, Serrano reinstated first-past-the-post voting, which made it easier for the government to use electoral fraud in rural districts. Voters were required to present an "electoral card" (cédula electoral) that mayors were entitled to award to its constituents; as most of these were aligned with the governing coalition, they could refuse awarding the card to voters that were hostile to the government.[3] They also employed intimidation tactics through the partida de la porra aligned to the Progressive Party, to violently attack opponents.[4]
The enthronement of Amadeo I led to the internal division of the Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF) into two factions: the "benevolents" (benevolentes), who aimed at deposing Amadeo through legal means, and the "intransigent" (intransigentes), who decided to abstain from electoral participation as they dubbed the system as illegitimate and advocated for the proclamation of a "federal republic from below" through violent insurrection.[5] For Carlists, the good results obtained on the previous election, coupled with the failure of uprising attempts in the summers of 1869 and 1870 (the latter known as la escocada), led to the movement favouring electoral means to achieve power. Ramón Cabrera, de facto leader of the movement, resigned as captain general of the Royal Carlist Army and retired from politics due to disagreements with Carlos de Borbón.[6] The pretender assumed the chieftainship of the party and named a Central Council presided by the Marquis of Villadarias, who organised electoral activity and propaganda.[7]
As a result of the Liberal Union's decision to support Amadeo's election, two factions split up and ran on their own in the 1871 election: the "montpensierists" (montpensieristas), supporters of the Duke of Montpensier's claim to the throne (led by the Duke himself and Antonio de los Ríos Rosas), and the conservative "alfonsists", who supported the claim of Isabella II's son, Alfonso de Borbón (led by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo).[8]
Overview
Electoral system
Under the 1869 Constitution, the Spanish Cortes were envisaged as "co-legislative bodies", based on a nearly perfect bicameral system.[9] Both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate had legislative, control and budgetary functions, sharing equal powers except for laws on contributions, public credit or military force, the first reading of which corresponded to Congress—which also had preeminence in case of disagreement—and impeachment processes against government ministers, in which each chamber had separate powers of indictment (Congress) and trial (Senate).[10][11] Voting for each chamber of the Cortes was on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, which comprised all national males over 25 years of age and in full enjoyment of their civil rights.[12][13][14] In Puerto Rico, voting was on the basis of censitary suffrage, comprising males of age fulfilling one of the following criteria: being literate or taxpayers with a minimum quota of 16 escudos.[15][16] Voters were required to not being sentenced—by a final court ruling—to disqualification from political rights, to afflictive penalties not legally rehabilitated; neither being criminally prosecuted with an arrest warrant not substituted with bail; nor homeless.[17][18]
The Congress of Deputies was entitled to one member per each 40,000 inhabitants or fraction greater than 20,000. Seats were allocated to single-member districts—406 for the 1871 election—distributed among the provinces of Spain and Puerto Rico in proportion to their populations, and elected using plurality voting.[19][20][21][22] 18 additional seats were awarded to multi-member constituencies in the island of Cuba, where elections (as well as the updating of district divisions to comply with the new electoral law) were indefinitely postponed due to the military situation.[2][23]
For the Senate, 200 seats were elected using an indirect, write-in, two-roundmajority voting system. Voters in each local council elected delegates—equivalent in number to one-sixth of the councillors, with an initial minimum of one—who, together with provincial deputies, would in turn vote for senators. Each province, as well as the whole of Puerto Rico, was allocated four seats.[22][24][25]
The law provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated in the Congress throughout the legislature's term.[26] By-elections were not required in the Senate, with vacancies being filled in the next regular election of the chamber.[27]
Eligibility
For the Congress, Spanish citizens with the legal capacity to vote could run for election, provided that they were not holders of government-appointed offices.[28][29] A number of positions were exempt from ineligibility, provided that no more than 40 deputies benefitted from these:[30]
Senior Administration chiefs residing in Madrid and with a yearly public salary of at least Pts 12,500;
The holders of a number of positions: government ministers; general officers of the Army and Navy based in Madrid; the president and chamber presidents of the territorial court of Madrid; the rector and full professors of the Central University of Madrid; and first-class inspectors-general and chief engineers with residence in Madrid and a two-year seniority in office.
For the Senate, eligibility was limited to Spanish citizens over 40 years of age and in full enjoyment of their civil rights, provided that they belonged or had belonged to one of the following categories:[31][32]
Provided two prior years of service: members of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Council of War and Navy, and the Court of Auditors; plenipotentiaries; and full professors;
The 50 largest taxpayers by territorial contribution, and the 20 largest by industrial and trade subsidy, in each province.
Other causes of ineligibility for both chambers 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; and debtors of public funds (including their substitutes or jointly liable parties);[33] additionally for Puerto Rico, ineligibility extended to those having been convicted of crimes related to the repression of slave trade.[34] Incompatibility provisions extended to the impossibility of simultaneously holding the positions of deputy, senator, provincial deputy and local councillor, as well as serving by two or more parliamentary constituencies.[35][36]
Election date
The term of each chamber of the Cortes—the Congress and one-quarter of the Senate—expired three years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier.[37] The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election.[38] Only elections to renew one-quarter of the Senate were constitutionally required to be held concurrently with elections to the Congress, though the former could be renewed in its entirety in the case that a full dissolution was agreed by the monarch.[37]
The Cortes were officially dissolved on 2 January 1871, following the swearing-in of Amadeo I as King of Spain, with the election decree setting the election dates from 8 to 11 March in most of the country and until 15 March in the Canary Islands, scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 3 April.[39][40] The publication of the election decree for Puerto Rico was delayed until 1 April, setting the election dates for the island from 20 to 23 June.[41][42] In Cuba, elections were indefinitely postponed due to the outbreak of the Ten Years' War.[1][2]
1 2 3 Elections in Cuba were indefinitely postponed due to the outbreak of the Ten Years' War, resulting in the vacancy of the 18 seats allocated to the island.[1][2]
↑ In the Canary Islands, the election was held until 15 March 1871. In Puerto Rico, the election was held from 20 to 23 June 1871.
1 2 3 Decree of 1 April (1871), explanatory statement: "On the island of Cuba, the work of preparing electoral lists was hampered by the state of war that prevailed there and the necessary replacement of the electoral districts established by the decree, now law, of 14 December 1868, with new districts. [Spanish: En la isla de Cuba embarazaron los trabajos de formación de las listas electorales el estado de guerra que allí se sostiene y la precisa sustitución por nuevos distritos de las circunscripciones de elección establecidos por el decreto, hoy ley, de 14 de diciembre de 1868.]".
Pi y Arsuaga, Francisco; Pi y Margall, Francisco (1902). Historia de España en el siglo XIX: sucesos políticos, económicos, sociales y artísticos (in Spanish). Vol.5. Barcelona: Seguí.
Vilches, Jorge (2001). Progreso y libertad: el Partido Progresista en la revolución liberal española (in Spanish). Madrid: Alianza Editorial. ISBN8420667684.
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