Italian general election, 1876

Italian general election, 1876
Kingdom of Italy
5-12 November 1876

All 508 seats to the Italian Chamber of Deputies
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Agostino Depretis Marco Minghetti
Party Historical Left Historical Right
Leader's seat Stradella Legnago
Seats won 424 94
Seat change Increase182 Decrease182
Percentage 70.2% 28.2%
Swing Increase23.8% Decrease25.4%

Composition of the Parliament

Prime Minister before election

Agostino Depretis
Historical Left

Subsequent Prime Minister

Agostino Depretis
Historical Left

The Italian general election of 1876 was held in Italy on November 5, with a second round of voting on November 12.[1]

The race

The Historical Left was led by the current Prime Minister of Italy, Agostino Depretis, who became head of the government and early elections were called.

On the other hand, the bloc of the Historical Right was led by Marco Minghetti, former Prime Minister from Bologna.

The election on 5 and 12 Novemner was a snap one, and it came after MPs from Tuscany became dissatisfied with the government of Minghetti following its refusal to intervene in the financial problems of Florence. The government was defeated on a vote on nationalising railways on 18 March 1876 and was forced to resign and Depretis was appointed Prime Minister.[2] For the first time, the left-wing won an election, taking 414 of the 508 seats, of which 12 were extreme left-wingers.[2] As opposed to the previous right-wing governments, whose members were largely aristocrats representing rentiers from the north of the country, and held moderate political views including loyalty to the crown and low government spending,[3] the left-wing government represented the bourgeoisie of the south of the country and supported low taxation, secularism, a strong foreign policy and public jobs.[2]

Only 605,007 men of a total population of around 28 million were entitled to vote.[4]

Parties and leaders

Party Ideology Leader
Historical Left Liberalism, Centrism Agostino Depretis
Historical Right Conservatism, Monarchism Marco Minghetti

Results

Italian general election of 1876
Candidates Votes
Party Standing Elected Gained Unseated Net % of total % No. Net %
  Historical Left 508 414 + 182 54 70.2 243,319 + 2.7
  Historical Right 421 94 - 182 36.3 28.2 97,726 - 1.8
  Others 2 0 0 0 0 1.6 5,530 0.0

Total votes cast: 358,253. Registered voters/turnout: 605,007 - 59.2.

Popular vote
Historical Left
 
70.2%
Historical Right
 
28.2%
Others
 
1.6%
Parliamentary seats
Historical Left
 
81.5%
Historical Right
 
18.5%

References

  1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Nohlen & Stöver, p1029
  3. Nohlen & Stöver, p1028
  4. Nohlen & Stöver, p1049