1882 Italian general election
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All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in Italy on 29 October 1882, with a second round of voting on 5 November.[1] The "ministerial" left-wing bloc emerged as the largest in Parliament, winning 289 of the 508 seats.[2]
Electoral system
Shortly before the elections the voting age was lowered from 25 to 21 and the tax requirement lowered from ₤40 to ₤19.80, whilst men with three years of primary education were exempted from it.[3] This resulted in the number of eligible voters increasing from 621,896 at the 1880 elections to 2,017,829.[4] The electoral system was changed from one based on single-member constituencies to one based on small multi-member constituencies with between two and five seats.[3] Voters had as many votes as there were candidates, except in constituencies with five seats, in which they were limited to four votes.[5] To be elected in the first round a candidate needed an absolute majority of the votes cast and to receive a number of votes equivalent to at least one-eighth of the number registered voters. If a second round was required, the number of candidates going through was double the number of seats available.[5]
Electoral campaign
The Historical Left was led by the Prime Minister of Italy, Agostino Depretis, a prominent member of the Italian politics for decades. The bloc of the Historical Right was led by Marco Minghetti, a conservative politician and former Prime Minister, from Bologna. A third large parliamentary group was the Historical Far-Left, a far-left organization led by Agostino Bertani, an Italian revolutionary.
The "Ministerial" left-wing bloc emerged as the largest in Parliament, winning 289 of the 508 seats; the Right arrived second with 147 seats.[2] Depretis was confirmed Prime Minister by king Umberto I.
Parties and leaders
Results
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
bgcolor="Template:Historical Left/meta/color" | | Historical Left | 695,147[a] | 56.8 | 289 | +71 |
bgcolor="Template:Historical Right/meta/color" | | Historical Right | 353,693[a] | 28.9 | 147 | −24 |
bgcolor="Template:Historical Far Left/meta/color" | | Historical Far Left | 105,251[a] | 8.6 | 44 | New |
bgcolor="Template:Dissident left-wing/meta/color" | | Dissident Left | 45,282[a] | 3.7 | 19 | −100 |
bgcolor="Template:Other/meta/color" | | Others | 24,477[a] | 2.0 | 9 | +9 |
Invalid/blank votes | 62,646 | – | – | – | |
Total | 1,223,851 | 100 | 508 | 0 | |
Registered voters/turnout | 2,017,829 | 60.7 | – | – | |
Source: Nohlen & Stöver |