The election was held with universal male suffrage. It was held in very unorthodox conditions and drew a very low voter turnout, as neither the Carlist or Alfonsist monarchists participated. The same happened with centralist and unitarian Republicans, or even the incipient labor organizations affiliated with the First International, who held a campaign of election boycott. This left the republic with a serious lack of legitimacy. The Federal Democratic Republican Party won the election.
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 1873 election—distributed among the provinces of Spain and Puerto Rico in proportion to their populations, and elected using plurality voting.[13][14][15][16] 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][3][17]
The law provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated in the Congress throughout the legislature's term.[18]
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.[19][20] A number of positions were exempt from ineligibility, provided that no more than 40 deputies benefitted from these:[21]
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.
Other causes of ineligibility 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);[22] additionally for Puerto Rico, ineligibility extended to those having been convicted of crimes related to the repression of slave trade.[23] Incompatibility provisions extended to the impossibility of simultaneously holding the positions of deputy, provincial deputy and local councillor, as well as serving by two or more parliamentary constituencies.[24][25]
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][3]
1 2 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.]".
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