Spanish general election, 1920

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December 19, 1920

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All 409 seats of the Congress of Deputies
205 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

59.86%

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Eduardo Dato	Manuel García Prieto	Francesc Cambó
Party	Conservative	Liberal	LRC
Leader since	1913	1918	1901
Last election	198 seats	140 seats	14 seats
Seats won	224	119	15
Seat change	26	21	1

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Melquíades Álvarez	Alejandro Lerroux	Pablo Iglesias
Party	PR	PRR	PSOE
Leader since	1912	1908	2 May 1879
Last election	6 seats	4 seats	6 seats
Seats won	9	8	4
Seat change	3	4	2

Prime Minister before election

Eduardo Dato
Conservative

Elected Prime Minister

Eduardo Dato
Conservative

General elections to the Cortes Generales were held in Spain on 19 December 1920. At stake were all 409 seats in the Congress of Deputies.

The Spanish legislature, the Cortes, was composed of two chambers at the time of the 1920 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