A general election was held in Spain from 24 to 27 August 1872 to elect the members of the 3rd under the Spanish Constitution of 1869, during the Democratic Sexennium period. 406 of 424 seats in the Congress of Deputies and all 200 seats in the Senate were up for election. The election in Cuba was indefinitely postponed.
Most of the opposition to the Radical Democratic Party of Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla opted to boycott the electionâÂÂwith the Carlists completely disengaging from electoral participation following the outbreak of the Third Carlist War in AprilâÂÂwhereas for the Federal Democratic Republican Party only the "benevolent" faction chose to participate. As a result, the Radicals were able to secure a commanding parliamentary majority without needing to resort to electoral fraud, albeit under a low voter turnout.
The parliament elected in the April 1872 general election was short-lived, as the government of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta was forced to resign in May following a political scandal over a secret transfer of funds from an overseas savings bank (the ) to the Governance ministry that was allegedly used to pay for election expenses. Following a 20-day government under Francisco Serrano, King Amadeo I appointed Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla as new prime minister, who formed a Radical Democratic Party cabinet and called a snap election to provide itself with a parliamentary majority.
Zorrilla's government generally attempted to avoid resorting to fraud in the organization of the election process, instructing the provincial civil governors not to impose or recommend official candidates, reforming the census in those places where voters had been disenfranchised from the electoral rollâÂÂmostly to facilitate Sagasta's victory in AprilâÂÂand reinstating local councils which had been suspended. While this did not prevent the existence of allegations of government interference, the election was widely seen as more free and fair than previous ones.
Most of the opposition to the Radical government had chosen not to participate in the election: the Constitutional Party and the Alfonsists fielded few candidates, mostly opting for a strategy of "retreat" (, akin to election boycott), whereas for the Federal Democratic Republican Party only the "benevolent" faction chose to participate. Discontent with Amadeo's proclamation as King of Spain paved the way for Carlists to withdraw from electoral participation and wage the Third Carlist War in favour of their pretender, Carlos de Borbón, who tried to earn the support of various Spanish regions by promising to reintroduce various area-specific customs and laws (particularly, the Catalan, Valencian and Aragonese which had been abolished at the beginning of the 18th century by King Philip V in his unilateral Nueva Planta decrees).
Under the 1869 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) or military forceâÂÂwhose first reading corresponded to Congress, which also had greater preeminenceâÂÂand in impeachment processes against government ministers, where Congress handled indictment and the Senate the trial.
Voting for each chamber of the was based on universal manhood suffrage, comprising all Spanish national males over 25 years of age with full civil rights. In Puerto Rico, voting was based on censitary suffrage, comprising males of legal age who were either literate or taxpayers with a minimum quota of 16 escudos. Additional restrictions excluded those deprived of political rights or disqualification from public office by a final court ruling, under criminal penalties or prosecution without bail, and homeless.
The Congress of Deputies had one seat per 40,000 inhabitants or fraction above 20,000. All were elected in single-member districts using plurality voting and distributed among the provinces of Spain and Puerto Rico according to population. 18 additional seats were allocated to three multi-member constituencies in the island of Cuba, where elections and boundary delimitations were indefinitely postponed due to the Ten Years' War.
All 200 Senate seats were elected using indirect, write-in, two-round majority voting. Delegates chosen by local councilsâÂÂtogether with provincial deputiesâÂÂvoted for senators. Provinces and the whole of Puerto Rico were allocated four seats each.
For the Congress, the law provided for by-elections to fill vacant seats during the legislative term. For the Senate, any vacancies arising during the legislative term were filled in the chamber's next full or one-quarter election, with senators elected this way serving the remainder of their seat's original term.
For the Congress, Spanish citizens with the right to vote could run for election, provided that they were not holders of government-appointed posts. 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 40 years of age and in full enjoyment of their civil rights, provided that they belonged (or had belonged) to certain categories:
Other ineligibility provisions 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; and debtors of public funds. Additionally in Puerto Rico, ineligibility extended to those convicted of slave trade crimes. Incompatibility rules prohibited the simultaneous holding of the positions of deputy, senator, provincial deputy and local councillor, as well as serving by two or more constituencies.
The term of each chamber of the âÂÂthe Congress and one-quarter of the SenateâÂÂexpired three years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier. Election day was held over several voting days: the first was used to elect polling station officials, and the remaining ones were devoted to the parliamentary election itself. The previous election was held on 2 April 1872, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 2 April 1875.
The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given timeâÂÂeither jointly or separatelyâÂÂand call a snap election. Only elections to renew one-quarter of the Senate were constitutionally required to be held concurrently with elections to the Congress, though the former could be renewed in its entirety in the case that a full dissolution was agreed by the monarch.
The were officially dissolved on 28 June 1872, with the corresponding decree setting election day to start on 24 August and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 15 September. In Cuba, elections were indefinitely postponed due to the outbreak of the Ten Years' War.
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