1923 Spanish general election

A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 29 April (for the Congress of Deputies) and on Sunday, 13 May 1923 (for the Senate), to elect the members of the 20th 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. This election was the last under the Restoration system, as it would collapse shortly thereafter and give way to the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera.

Amid rising social unrest between trade unions—particularly the anarcho-syndicalist National Confederation of Labour (CNT) and the Carlist, yellow Free Trade Unions (Sindicatos Libres)—and the Spanish government, the pistolerismo period saw the assassination of Prime Minister Eduardo Dato in March 1921, as well as the widespread use by Spanish authorities of the ley de fugas method of extrajudicial execution, particularly in Barcelona. During this period of turmoil, a number of Conservative-led governments under Manuel Allendesalazar, Antonio Maura and José Sánchez-Guerra succeeded themselves, each lasting for less than a year.

The election was held against the backdrop of the Picasso file and the parliamentary inquiry committee into the political and legal responsibilities resulting from the disaster of Annual in 1921, in which over 10,000 Spanish soldiers were killed. The debate on responsibilities deepened the divisions within the ruling Conservatives and hastened the downfall of Sánchez-Guerra's government. In a return to the turno system, King Alfonso XIII appointed the Marquis of Alhucemas at the helm of a cabinet formed by the various Liberal factions and the Reformists. A general election was subsequently called, with the Liberal Union securing an overall majority, the first since 1916. Upon its re-opening the parliament resumed its inquiry on the Picasso report.

On 13–15 September 1923, Captain General of Catalonia Miguel Primo de Rivera would take advantage of the political crisis and stage a military coup d'état, blaming the parliamentary system for most of the country's problems. With the decisive acquiescence of Alfonso XIII—increasingly displeased with parliamentarism and wary of the Picasso report pointing to his own responsibility in the Rif War failures—the coup would lead to Primo de Rivera replacing Alhucemas as prime minister, the establishment of a military directorate at the helm of the country, the declaration of martial law and the dissolution of the Cortes, with the 1876 Constitution being effectively abolished. Primo de Rivera would rule Spain as dictator until his fall in 1930 and the subsequent proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931.