Spanish general election, 1893

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5 March 1893

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All 401 seats in the Congress of Deputies
201 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Práxedes Mateo Sagasta	Antonio Cánovas del Castillo	Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla
Party	Liberal	Conservative	UR
Leader since	1872	1874	1880
Leader's seat	Logroño	Cieza	Madrid
Last election	97 seats	261 seats	19 seats
Seats won	257	70	32
Seat change	160	191	13

Prime Minister before election

Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
Liberal

Elected Prime Minister

Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
Liberal

The 1893 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 5 March 1893, to elect the 6th Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 401 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election.

The Spanish Constitution of 1876 enshrined Spain as a constitutional monarchy, awarding the King power to name senators and to revoke laws, as well as the title of commander-in-chief of the army. The King would also play a key role in the system of the turno pacífico (English: Peaceful Turn) by appointing and toppling governments and allowing the opposition to take power. Under this system, the Conservative and Liberal parties alternated in power by means of election rigging, which they achieved through the encasillado, using the links between the Ministry of the Interior, the provincial civil governors, and the local bosses (caciques) to ensure victory and exclude minor parties from the power sharing.

The Spanish Cortes were envisaged as "co-legislative bodies", based on a nearly perfect bicameralism. Both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate had legislative, control and budgetary functions, sharing equal powers except for laws on contributions or public credit, where the Congress had preeminence. Voting for the Cortes was on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, which comprised all national males over twenty-five, having at least a two-year residency in a municipality and in full enjoyment of their civil rights.

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Wikipedia