Italian general election, 1882

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29 October–5 November 1882

1886 →

All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	Agostino Depretis	Marco Minghetti	Agostino Bertani
Party	Historical Left	Historical Right	Historical Far Left
Seats won	289	147	44
Seat change	71	24	New
Percentage	56.8%	28.9%	8.6%
Swing	16.1%	9.0%	New

Prime Minister before election

Agostino Depretis
Historical Left

Elected Prime Minister

Agostino Depretis
Historical Left

General elections were held in Italy on 29 October 1882, with a second round of voting on 5 November. The "ministerial" left-wing bloc emerged as the largest in Parliament, winning 289 of the 508 seats.

Shortly before the elections the voting age was lowered from 25 to 21 and the tax requirement lowered from ₤40 to ₤19.80, whilst men with three years of primary education were exempted from it. This resulted in the number of eligible voters increasing from 621,896 at the 1880 elections to 2,017,829. The electoral system was changed from one based on single-member constituencies to one based on small multi-member constituencies with between two and five seats. Voters had as many votes as there were candidates, except in constituencies with five seats, in which they were limited to four votes. To be elected in the first round a candidate needed an absolute majority of the votes cast and to receive a number of votes equivalent to at least one-eighth of the number registered voters. If a second round was required, the number of candidates going through was double the number of seats available.

The Historical Left was led by the Prime Minister of Italy, Agostino Depretis, a prominent member of the Italian politics for decades. The bloc of the Historical Right was led by Marco Minghetti, a conservative politician and former Prime Minister, from Bologna. A third large parliamentary group was the Historical Far-Left, a far-left organization led by Agostino Bertani, an Italian revolutionary.

The "Ministerial" left-wing bloc emerged as the largest in Parliament, winning 289 of the 508 seats; the Right arrived second with 147 seats. Depretis was confirmed Prime Minister by king Umberto I.

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