Spanish general election, 1910

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8–22 May 1910

1914 →

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

Registered

4,721,480
(3,383,070 in constituencies where elections were held)

Turnout

2,494,082 (73.7%)

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	José Canalejas	Antonio Maura	Benito Pérez Galdós
Party	Liberal	Conservative	CRS
Leader since	1910	1905	1909
Leader's seat	Ferrol	Palma	Madrid
Last election	82 seats	249 seats	7 seats
Seats won	215	115	27
Seat change	133	134	20

Prime Minister before election

José Canalejas
Liberal

Elected Prime Minister

José Canalejas
Liberal

The 1910 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 8 May and on Sunday, 22 May 1910, to elect the 14th 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 1910 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