1881 Spanish general election

1881 Spanish general election

← 1879 21 August 1881 (Congress) 2 September 1881 (Senate) 1884 →
All 392 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 180 (of 360) seats in the Senate 197 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
Registered	846,961
Turnout	604,758 (71.4%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Emilio Castelar Party Fusionist Conservative Democratic Leader since 1880 1874 1879 Leader's seat Zamora Cieza Huesca Seats won 297 C / 135 S 48 C / 15 S 32 C / 12 S
Prime Minister before election Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Liberal Prime Minister after election Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Liberal

The 1881 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 21 August and on Friday, 2 September 1881, to elect the 2nd Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 392 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.^[1]

Though formally competitive, the 1881 general election was held under the recently developed system of turno pacifico; in accordance with a semi-formal power-sharing arrangement brokered by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, elections—under influence by machine bosses called caciques—served as a rubber stamp for a routine handover of power initiated by the King. The 1881 election, as expected, sanctioned the pre-arranged handover from the Conservatives to the newly created Liberal Fusionist Party. From 1881 until the end of the constitutional monarchy, the turno power-sharing plan would continue dominating the Spanish political landscape nearly uninterruptedly.