1916 Spanish general election

A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 9 April (for the Congress of Deputies) and on Sunday, 23 April 1916 (for the Senate), to elect the members of the 16th Cortes under the Spanish Constitution of 1876, during the Restoration period. All 409 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.

The turno system—under which Conservatives and Liberals had alternated in power by determining in advance the outcome of elections through caciquism and electoral fraud—had entered a phase of decline derived from the internal crises of the two dynastic parties, which had turned into a set of factions that made political rotation difficult. The Conservatives had fragmented between those supporting the continuity of the turno (the idóneos or "suitable ones", led by Prime Minister Eduardo Dato) and those following the political doctrine of Antonio Maura (the Maurist faction or mauristas), who had grown disaffected with it. In the Liberal camp, divisions were a result of personal rivalries between the Count of Romanones and the Marquis of Alhucemas.

Dato and Romanones initially agreed to support each other in maintaining the turno and fighting their respective dissidents, helped by a lessening of partisanship in 1914 due to the outbreak of World War I. The conflict saw an expansion of industrial activity as demand for Spanish goods rose among the warring powers—a result of the Dato government proclaiming the country's neutrality in the war—but the inflow of capital caused inflation and a drop in imports, exacerbating poverty in some areas of the country as the shortage of basic commodities led to food riots. Dato's attempt to avoid parliament (which was only in session for seven out of his 25-month tenure) alienated the Maurists, whereas his refusal to establish a free-trade zone in the port of Barcelona enraged Catalan regionalists. With Romanones and Alhucemas agreeing to a united front against the Conservative cabinet in the summer of 1915, Dato found himself isolated, resigning in December that year after being unable to pass a proposed military reform.

Re-appointed as prime minister by King Alfonso XIII, Romanones formed a cabinet with representation from all liberal factions, subsequently calling a general election that saw his government securing an overall majority. This would the last election until 1923 in which a single party or alliance would secure a majority of parliamentary support.