Spanish general election, 1905

← 1903

10–24 September 1905

1907 →

All 404 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 180 (of 360) seats in the Senate
203 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Eugenio Montero Ríos	Antonio Maura	Nicolás Salmerón
Party	Liberal	Conservative	PUR
Leader since	1902	1905	1903
Leader's seat	None	Balearic Islands (Palma)	Barcelona (Barcelona)
Last election	113 seats	219 seats	30 seats
Seats won	223	107	27
Seat change	110	112	3

Prime Minister before election

Eugenio Montero Ríos
Liberal

Elected Prime Minister

Eugenio Montero Ríos
Liberal

The 1905 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 10 September and on Sunday, 24 September 1905, to elect the 12th Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 404 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 1905 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