Spanish general election, 1903

← 1901

26 April–10 May 1903

1905 →

All 403 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 180 (of 360) seats in the Senate
202 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Francisco Silvela	Eugenio Montero Ríos	Nicolás Salmerón
Party	Conservative	Liberal	PUR
Leader since	1899	1902	1903
Leader's seat	Ávila (Piedrahita)	None	Barcelona (Barcelona)
Last election	97 seats	245 seats	15 seats
Seats won	219	104	30
Seat change	122	141	15

Prime Minister before election

Francisco Silvela
Conservative

Elected Prime Minister

Francisco Silvela
Conservative

The 1903 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 26 April and on Sunday, 10 May 1903, to elect the 11th Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 403 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 1903 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