Spanish general election, 1896

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12–26 April 1896

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All 401 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 180 (of 360) seats in the Senate
201 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Antonio Cánovas del Castillo	Práxedes Mateo Sagasta	Francisco Silvela
Party	Conservative	Liberal	UC
Leader since	1874	1872	1892
Leader's seat	Albacete (Hellín)	Logroño (Logroño)	Ávila (Piedrahita)
Last election	70 seats	257 seats	17 seats
Seats won	272	98	12
Seat change	202	159	5

Prime Minister before election

Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
Conservative

Elected Prime Minister

Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
Conservative

The 1896 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 12 April and on Sunday, 26 April 1896, to elect the 7th Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 401 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.

The Spanish legislature, the Cortes, was composed of two chambers at the time of the 1896 election:

This was a nearly perfect bicameral system, with the two chambers established as "co-legislative bodies". Both chambers had legislative, control and budgetary functions, sharing equal powers except for laws on contributions or public credit, where the Congress had preeminence.

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 (Spanish for "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.

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Wikipedia