Italian general election, 1900

Italian general election, 1900

3–10 June 1900

All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Giovanni Giolitti Antonio Starabba di Rudinì Filippo Turati Party Historical Left Historical Right Socialist Party Seats won 296 116 33 Seat change 33 17 29 Popular vote 663,418 271,698 164,946 Percentage 52.3% 21.4% 13.0% Swing 12.0% 2.0% 10.0%

Prime Minister before election Luigi Pelloux Military Elected Prime Minister Giuseppe Saracco Historical Left

General elections were held in Italy on 3 June 1900, with a second round of voting on 10 June.^[1] The "ministerial" left-wing bloc remained the largest in Parliament, winning 296 of the 508 seats.^[2]

Electoral system

The election was held using 508 single-member constituencies. However, prior to the election the electoral law was amended so that candidates needed only an absolute majority of votes to win their constituency, abolishing the second requirement of receiving the votes of at least one-sixth of registered voters.^[3]

Historical background

Upon the fall of Antonio Starabba di Rudinì in June 1898, General Luigi Pelloux was entrusted by King Umberto with the formation of a cabinet, and took for himself the post of minister of the interior. He resigned office in May 1899 over his Chinese policy, but was again entrusted with the formation of a government. His new cabinet was essentially military and conservative, the most decisively conservative since 1876.^[4]

He took stern measures against the revolutionary elements in southern Italy. The Public Safety Bill for the reform of the police laws, taken over by him from the Rudinì cabinet, and eventually promulgated by royal decree. The law made strikes by state employees illegal; gave the executive wider powers to ban public meetings and dissolve subversive organisations; revived the penalties of banishment and preventive arrest for political offences; and tightened control of the press by making authors responsible for their articles and declaring incitement to violence a crime.^[4] The new coercive law was fiercely obstructed by the Socialist Party of Italy (PSI), which, with the Left and Extreme Left, succeeded in forcing General Pelloux to dissolve the Chamber in May 1900, and to resign office after the general election in June.

Parties and leaders

Results

← Summary of June 1900 Chamber of Deputies election results →

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	Historical Left	663,418	52.3	296	−33
	Historical Right	271,698	21.4	116	+17
	Italian Socialist Party	164,946	13.0	33	+18
	The Extreme	89,872	7.1	34	−8
	Italian Republican Party	79,127	6.2	29	+4
Invalid/blank votes		38,888	–	–	–
Total		1,310,480	100	508	±0
Registered voters/turnout		2,248,509	58.3	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

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