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All 508 seats in theChamber of Deputies 255 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held inItaly on 7 March 1909, with a second round of voting on 14 March.[1] The "ministerial" left-wing bloc remained the largest inParliament, winning 329 of the 508 seats.[2]
The right-wing leaderSidney Sonnino succeed to Giolitti's protégéAlessandro Fortis as prime minister in 1906. But his cabinet had a short lift; any way Sonnino formed an alliance withFrance on the colonial expansion inNorth Africa. His government lasted only few months.
After Sonnino's resignationGiovanni Giolitti returned to power in 1906. Many critics accused Giolitti of manipulating the elections, piling up majorities with the restricted suffrage at the time, using the prefects just as his contenders. However, he did refine the practice in the elections of 1904 and 1909 that gave the liberals secure majorities.
In the election, The Right lost his important position in the Parliament, replaced by theRadical Party ofEttore Sacchi, who became an ally of Giolitti and theItalian Socialist Party ofFilippo Turati, which continued its strong opposition to the Left governments.
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]
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Ministerials | 995,290 | 54.45 | 336 | −3 | |
| Italian Socialist Party | 347,615 | 19.02 | 41 | +12 | |
| Italian Radical Party | 181,242 | 9.92 | 45 | +8 | |
| Constitutional opposition | 108,029 | 5.91 | 36 | −40 | |
| Italian Republican Party | 81,461 | 4.46 | 24 | 0 | |
| Italian Catholic Electoral Union | 73,015 | 3.99 | 16 | +13 | |
| Constitutional Independents | 41,213 | 2.25 | 10 | New | |
| Total | 1,827,865 | 100.00 | 508 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 1,827,865 | 96.74 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 61,500 | 3.26 | |||
| Total votes | 1,889,365 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,930,473 | 64.47 | |||
| Source: National Institute of Statistics[4] | |||||
