Italian general election, 1861

Italian general election, 1861

27 January–3 February 1861

All 443 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Camillo Benso di Cavour Urbano Rattazzi Giuseppe Mazzini Party Historical Right Historical Left The Extreme Seats won 342 62 14 Percentage 46.1% 20.4% 2.3%

Prime Minister before election None Elected Prime Minister Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour Historical Right

General elections were held in Italy on 27 January 1861, with a second round of voting on 3 February.^[1] The newly elected Parliament first convened in Turin on 4 March 1861, where it declared the unification of the country as the Kingdom of Italy.^[2]

The election was carried out according to the 1848 electoral law of the Kingdom of Sardinia, in which only literate men over the age of 25 and paying a certain level of taxation were allowed to vote.^[1] Candidates were elected in single member constituencies, with a second round required in cases when no candidates received over 50% of the vote or the equivalent of one-third of the registered voters in the constituency.^[3] The Pope demanded that Catholics did not take part in the elections.^[3]

The race

The Historical Right was led by the former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, a long-time statesman and a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification.

On the other hand, the bloc of the Historical Left was led by Urbano Rattazzi, a liberal politician who was among the founders of the Italian left-wing parliamentary group.

In opposition to the two main blocs there were a third party known as The Extreme, a far-left coalition, under the leadership of Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian revolutionary and a key figure of the Unification.

Only 418,696 men of a total population of around 22 million were entitled to vote.^[4] Right-wing candidates emerged as the largest bloc in Parliament with around 43% of the 443 seats.^[5] They 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.^[6] The right-wing leader Camillo Benso di Cavour was elected as the first Prime Minister in the history of Italy.

Parties and leaders

Results

Summary of February 1861 Chamber of Deputies election results →

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	Historical Right		46.1	342	New
	Historical Left		20.4	62	New
	The Extreme		2.3	14	New
	Independent		3.9	23	New
	Others		27.3	–
Invalid/blank votes			–	–	–
Total		239,583	100	443	±0
Registered voters/turnout		418,696	57.2	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Vote by geographical area

References

Elections and referendums in Italy
General elections	1861 1865 1867 1870 1874 1876 1880 1882 1886 1890 1892 1895 1897 1900 1904 1909 1913 1919 1921 1924 1929 1934 1946 1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1972 1976 1979 1983 1987 1992 1994 1996 2001 2006 2008 2013 next
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Regional elections	1947 1949 1951 1953 1954 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1964 1965 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1973 1974 1975 1976 1978 1979 1980 1981 1983 1984 1985 1986 1988 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Local elections	1946 1951 1956 1960 1964 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Referendums	1946 1974 1978 1981 1985 1987 1989 1990 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2003 2005 2006 2009 2011 2016 (Apr) 2016 (Dec)
See also: Elections in Abruzzo Aosta Valley Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Sardinia Sicily Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Tuscany Umbria Veneto