Zorrilla's government generally attempted to avoid resorting to fraud in the organization of the election process, instructing the provincial civil governors not to impose or recommend official candidates, reforming the census in those places where voters had been disenfranchised from the electoral roll—mostly to facilitate Sagasta's victory in April—and reinstating local councils which had been suspended. While this did not prevent the existence of allegations of government interference, the election was widely seen as more free and fair than previous ones.[4]
Most of the opposition to the Radical government had chosen not to participate in the election: the Constitutional Party and the Alfonsists fielded few candidates, mostly opting for a strategy of "retreat" (retraimiento, akin to election boycott), whereas for the Federal Democratic Republican Party only the "benevolent" faction chose to participate.[5] Discontent with Amadeo's proclamation as King of Spain paved the way for Carlists to withdraw from electoral participation and wage the Third Carlist War in favour of their pretender, Carlos de Borbón, who tried to earn the support of various Spanish regions by promising to reintroduce various area-specific customs and laws (particularly, the Catalan, Valencian and Aragonesefueros which had been abolished at the beginning of the 18th century by King Philip V in his unilateral Nueva Planta decrees).
Overview
Electoral system
Under the 1869 Constitution, the Spanish Cortes were envisaged as "co-legislative bodies", based on a nearly perfect bicameral system.[6] 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).[7][8] 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.[9][10][11] 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.[12][13] 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.[14][15][16]
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 August 1872 election—distributed among the provinces of Spain and Puerto Rico in proportion to their populations, and elected using plurality voting.[17][18][19][20] 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][21]
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.[20][22][23]
The law provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated in the Congress throughout the legislature's term.[24] By-elections were not required in the Senate, with vacancies being filled in the next regular election of the chamber.[25]
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.[26][27] A number of positions were exempt from ineligibility, provided that no more than 40 deputies benefitted from these:[28]
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:[29][30]
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);[31] additionally for Puerto Rico, ineligibility extended to those having been convicted of crimes related to the repression of slave trade.[32] 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.[33][34]
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.[35] The previous election was held on 2 April 1872, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 2 April 1875. The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election.[36] 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.[35]
The Cortes were officially dissolved on 28 June 1872, with the dissolution decree setting the election dates from 24 to 27 August and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 15 September.[37][38] 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]
↑ Zorrilla was also elected in El Burgo de Osma; he chose to sit for Madrid III instead, and resigned as deputy for El Burgo de Osma.
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.]".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
