A general election was held in Spain on 21 April 1907 (for the Congress of Deputies), and on 5 May 1907 (for the Senate), to elect the members of the 13th under the Spanish Constitution of 1876, during the Restoration period. All 404 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.
The informal system had allowed the country's two main partiesâÂÂthe Conservatives and the LiberalsâÂÂto alternate in power by determining in advance the outcome of elections through electoral fraud, often facilitated by the territorial clientelistic networks of local bosses (the ). The absence of politically authoritative figureheads since the deaths of Cánovas and Sagasta, together with the national trauma from the SpanishâÂÂAmerican War, weakened the internal unity of both parties and allowed faction leaders and local to strengthen their positions as power brokers.
Eugenio Montero RÃÂos had resigned as prime minister in the wake of the áCu-Cut! incident in November 1905. The Liberal Party then entered a period of internal turmoil during which various leadersâÂÂSegismundo Moret and José López DomÃÂnguezâÂÂsucceeded themselves in office. The strong rivalry between Moret and José Canalejas saw the "crisis of the letter" ()âÂÂwhich saw Moret returning to the premiership for a few daysâÂÂand a transitional government being formed by the Marquis of Vega de Armijo, until the Conservartive Party under Antonio Maura was tasked with the formation of a new government and the calling of a general election by King Alfonso XIII.
The election resulted in a large majority for MauraâÂÂwho used the system's own mechanisms to secure a disproportionate amount of seats at the expense of the Liberals, breaching a tacit pact between the elites of the two partiesâÂÂand a huge success for the Catalan Solidarity coalition, formed as a consequence of the political fallout in Catalonia resulting from the áCu-Cut! incident and the approval of the 1906 Law of Jurisdictions.
The Restoration system had entered a phase of decline following the national trauma from the SpanishâÂÂAmerican War (the "1898 disaster") and the absence of politically authoritative figureheads since the deaths of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (1897) and Práxedes Mateo Sagasta (1903), weakening the internal unity of both dynastic parties and strengthening the position of faction leaders and local as power brokers. Concurrently, the anti-monarchist opposition became increasingly competitive in urban and some rural districts, partly due to the introduction of universal suffrage since 1890, partly due to the progressive weakening of the pro-government electoral apparatus.
Under the 1876 Constitution, the Spanish were conceived as "co-legislative bodies", forming a nearly perfect bicameral system. Both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate exercised legislative, oversight and budgetary functions, sharing almost equal powers, except in budget laws (taxation and public credit)âÂÂwhose first reading corresponded to CongressâÂÂand in impeachment processes against government ministers, where Congress handled indictment and the Senate the trial.
Voting for the Congress of Deputies was based on universal manhood suffrage, comprising all Spanish national males over 25 years of age with full civil rights, provided they had two years of residence in a municipality. Additional restrictions excluded those deprived of political rights or disqualification from public office by a final court ruling, under criminal penalties, legally incapacitated, bankrupt people, debtors of public funds, and homeless.
The Congress of Deputies had one seat per 50,000 inhabitants. Of these, 98 were elected in 28 multi-member constituencies using partial block voting: in constituencies electing eight seats or more, voters could choose up to three candidates less than the number of seats at stake; in those with between four and eight seats, up to two less; and in those with between one and four seats, up to one less. The remaining 306 seats were elected in single-member districts by plurality voting and distributed among the provinces of Spain according to population. Additionally, universities, economic societies of Friends of the Country and officially organized chambers of commerce, industry and agriculture, had one seat per 5,000 registered voters.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:
Voting for the elective part of the Senate was based on censitary suffrage, comprising archbishops and bishops (in the ecclesiastical councils); full academics (in the royal academies); university authorities and professors (in the universities); members with three years of seniority (in the economic societies of Friends of the Country); major taxpayers and Spanish citizens of legal age, resident householders with full political and civil rights (for delegates in the local councils); and provincial deputies.
180 Senate seats were elected using indirect, write-in, two-round majority voting. Delegates chosen by economic societies, local councils and major taxpayersâÂÂtogether with other qualified electorsâÂÂvoted for senators. The provinces of Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia were allocated four seats each, and the rest three each, for a total of 150. The remaining 30 seats were allocated to special institutional districts (one each), including major archdioceses, royal academies, universities and economic societies of Friends of the Country. Another 180 seats consisted of senators in their own right (such as the monarch's offspring and the heir apparent once coming of age, grandees of Spain with sufficient income, certain general officersâÂÂcaptain generals and admiralsâÂÂarchbishops, and the heads of higher courts and state institutions after two years of service), as well as senators for life directly appointed by the monarch.
The law provided for by-elections to fill vacant seats during the legislative term.
For the Congress, secular Spanish citizens of legal age, with full civil rights and the right to vote could run for election. Causes of ineligibility applied to contractors of public works or services within the relevant territory; and to holders of certain government-appointed posts, or provincial deputation members, during their term of office and for one year afterwards. Government ministers and civil servants in the Central Administration were exempt from these causes. Special exemptions from ineligibility were granted to certain individuals, capping at 40 the number of deputies able to benefit from these:
For the Senate, eligibility was limited to Spanish citizens over 35 years of age who were not under criminal prosecution, disfranchisement nor asset seizure, and who either qualified to be senators in their own right or belonged (or had belonged) to certain categories:
Other ineligibility provisions for the Senate also applied to a number of territorial officials within their areas of jurisdiction, during their term of office and for up to three months afterwards; contractors of public works or services; tax collectors and their guarantors; debtors of public funds; deputies; local councillors (except those in Madrid); and provincial deputies within their respective provinces.
The term of each chamber of the âÂÂthe Congress and one-half of the elective part of the SenateâÂÂexpired five years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier. The previous elections were held on 10 September 1905 for the Congress and on 24 September 1905 for the Senate, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 10 and 24 September 1910, respectively.
The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given timeâÂÂeither jointly or separatelyâÂÂand call a snap election. There was no constitutional requirement for concurrent elections to the Congress and the Senate, nor for the elective part of the Senate to be renewed in its entirety except in the case that a full dissolution was agreed by the monarch. Still, there was only one case of a separate election (for the Senate in 1877) and no half-Senate elections taking place under the 1876 Constitution.
The were officially dissolved on 30 March 1907, with the corresponding decree setting election day for 21 April (Congress) and 5 May 1907 (Senate) and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 13 May.
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