August 1872 Spanish general election
24–27 August 1872
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All 424 seats in the Congress of Deputies and all 200 seats in the Senate 213 seats needed for a majority in the Congress and 101 in the Senate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 1,900,180 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A general election was held in Spain from Saturday, 24 August to Tuesday, 27 August 1872, to elect the members of the 3rd Cortes 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 election—with the Carlists completely disengaging from electoral participation following the outbreak of the Third Carlist War in April—whereas 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.