Spanish general election, 1923

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29 April 1923

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

Turnout

40.09–69.76%

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Manuel García Prieto	José Sánchez Guerra	Francesc Cambó
Party	Liberal	Conservative	LRC
Leader since	1918	1921	1901
Leader's seat	Senator for life	Cabra	Barcelona
Last election	125 seats	174 seats	14 seats
Seats won	222	93	20
Seat change	97	81	6

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader		Antonio Maura	Alejandro Lerroux
Party	CC	PM	PRR
Leader since	1914	1914	1908
Leader's seat	Mula	Palma	Barcelona
Last election	23 seats	24 seats	8 seats
Seats won	18	12	7
Seat change	5	12	1

Prime Minister before election

Manuel García Prieto
Liberal

Elected Prime Minister

Manuel García Prieto
Liberal

General elections to the Cortes Generales were held in Spain on 29 April 1923. At stake were all 409 seats in the Congress of Deputies.

The 1923 general election would be the final election governed by the customary turno system. As expected, it legitimated a prearranged shift of power from the Conservatives to the Liberals. The system ended with the September 1923 coup of Miguel Primo de Rivera, and the next elections - held after eight years of dictatorship and the removal of the monarchy - would be competitive.

The Spanish legislature, the Cortes, was composed of two chambers at the time of the 1923 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