1936 Spanish general election explained

Election Name:1936 Spanish general election
Country:Spain
Flag Year:1931
Type:parliamentary
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1933 Spanish general election
Previous Year:1933
Next Election:1967 Spanish general election
Next Year:1967
Seats For Election:All 473 seats of the Congress of Deputies
Majority Seats:237
Turnout:72.95%
Election Date:16 February 1936 (first round)
4 March 1936 (second round)
3 May 1936 (second round, partial re-run)
Leader1:Indalecio Prieto
Party1:Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
Leader Since1:1935
Leaders Seat1:Vizcaya-capital
Last Election1:59 seats
Seats1:99
Seat Change1:40
Leader2:José María Gil-Robles
Party2:CEDA
Leader Since2:4 March 1933
Leaders Seat2:Salamanca
Last Election2:115 seats
Seats2:88
Seat Change2:27
Leader3:Manuel Azaña
Party3:Republican Left (Spain)
Leader Since3:3 April 1934
Leaders Seat3:Madrid-capital
Last Election3:14 seats [1]
Seats3:87
Seat Change3:73
Leader4:Diego Martínez Barrio
Party4:Republican Union
Leader Since4:1934
Leaders Seat4:Madrid-province
Last Election4:N/A
Seats4:37
Seat Change4:37
Leader5:Lluís Companys
Party5:Republican Left of Catalonia
Leader Since5:1932
Leaders Seat5:Barcelona-capital
Last Election5:17
Seats5:21
Seat Change5:4
Leader6:Manuel Portela
Party6:Party of the Democratic Centre
Leader Since6:1936
Leaders Seat6:Pontevedra
Last Election6:N/A
Seats6:17
Seat Change6:17
Prime Minister
Before Election:Manuel Portela Valladares (acting)
Before Party:PCD
Posttitle:Prime Minister after election
After Election:Manuel Azaña
After Party:Republican Left (Spain)

Legislative elections were held in Spain on 16 February 1936. At stake were all 473 seats in the unicameral Cortes Generales. The winners of the 1936 elections were the Popular Front, a left-wing coalition of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), Republican Left (Spain) (IR), Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Republican Union (UR), Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Acció Catalana (AC), and other parties. Their coalition commanded a narrow lead over the divided opposition in terms of the popular vote, but a significant lead over the main opposition party, Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA), in terms of seats. The election had been prompted by a collapse of a government led by Alejandro Lerroux, and his Radical Republican Party. Manuel Azaña would replace Manuel Portela Valladares, caretaker, as prime minister.

The electoral process and the accuracy of the results have been historically disputed. Some of the causes of this controversy include the formation of a new cabinet before the results were clear, a lack of reliable electoral data, and the overestimation of election fraud in the official narrative that justified the coup d'état.[2] [3] [4] [5] The topic has been addressed in seminal studies by renowned authors such as Javier Tusell and Stanley G. Payne.[6] [7] A series of recent works has shifted the focus from the legitimacy of the election and the government to an analysis of the extent of irregularities.[8] [9] Whilst one of them suggests that the impact of fraud was higher than previously estimated when including new election datasets, the other disputes their relevance in the election result.

The elections were the last of three legislative elections held during the Spanish Second Republic, coming three years after the 1933 general election which had brought the first of Lerroux's governments to power. The uncontested victory of the political left in the elections of 1936 triggered a wave of collectivisation, mainly in the south and west of the Iberian Peninsula, engaging up to three million people,[10] which has been identified as a key cause of the July coup.[11] The right-wing military coup initiated by Gens. Sanjurjo and Franco, the ensuing civil war, and the establishment of Franco's dictatorship ultimately brought about the end of parliamentary democracy in Spain until the 1977 general election.

Background

See also: Background of the Spanish Civil War. After the 1933 election, the Radical Republican Party (RRP) led a series of governments, with Alejandro Lerroux as a moderate Prime Minister. On 26 September 1934, the CEDA announced it would no longer support the RRP's minority government, which was replaced by a RRP cabinet, led by Lerroux once more, that included three members of the CEDA.[12] The concession of posts to CEDA prompted the Asturian miners' strike of 1934, which turned into an armed rebellion.[13] Some time later, Robles once again prompted a cabinet collapse, and five ministries of Lerroux's new government were conceded to CEDA, including Robles himself.[14] Since the 1933 elections, farm workers' wages had been halved, and the military purged of republican members and reformed; those loyal to Robles had been promoted.[15] However, since CEDA's entry into the government, no constitutional amendments were ever made; no budget was ever passed.[14]

In 1935, Manuel Azaña and Indalecio Prieto worked to unify the left and combat its extreme elements in what would become the Popular Front; this included staging of large, popular rallies,.[15] Lerroux's Radical government collapsed after two significant scandals, the Straperlo and the Nombela affairs. However, president Niceto Alcalá Zamora did not allow the CEDA to form a government, and called elections.[16] Zamora had become disenchanted with Robles's obvious desire to do away with the republic and establish a corporate state, and his air of pride. He was looking to strengthen a new center party in place of the Radicals, but the election system did not favour this.[17] Manuel Portela Valladares was thus chosen to form a caretaker government in the meantime. The Republic had, as its opponents pointed out, faced twenty-six separate government crises.[18] Portela failed to get the required support in the parliament to rule as a majority.[19] The government was dissolved on 4 January; the date for elections would be 16 February.[18]

As in the 1933 election, Spain was divided into multi-member constituencies; for example, Madrid was a single district electing 17 representatives. However, a voter could vote for fewer than that – in Madrid's case, 13. This favoured coalitions, as in Madrid in 1933 when the Socialists won 13 seats, and the right, with just 5,000 votes fewer, secured only the remaining four.[20]

Election

There was significant violence during the election campaign, most of which initiated by the political left, though a substantial minority was by the political right. In total, some thirty-seven people were killed in various incidents throughout the campaign, ten of which occurred on the election day itself.[21] [22] Certain press restrictions were lifted. The political right repeatedly warned of the risk of a 'red flag' – communism – over Spain; the Radical Republican Party, led by Lerroux, concentrated on besmirching the Centre Party. CEDA, which continued to be the main party of the political right, struggled to gain the support of the monarchists, but managed to. Posters, however, had a distinctly fascist appeal, showing leader Gil-Robles alongside various autocratic slogans and he allowed his followers to acclaim him with cries of "Jefe!" (Spanish for "Chief!") in an imitation of "Duce!" or "Führer!".[23] [24] Whilst few campaign promises were made, a return to autocratic government was implied.[23] Funded by considerable donations from large landowners, industrialists and the Catholic Church – which had suffered under the previous Socialist administration – the Right printed millions of leaflets, promising a 'great Spain'.[25] In terms of manifesto, the Popular Front proposed going back to the sort of reforms its previous administration had advocated, including important agrarian reforms, and reforms relating to strikes. It would also release political prisoners, including those from the Asturian rebellion (though this provoked the right), helping to secure the votes of the CNT and FAI, although as organisations they remained outside the growing Popular Front;[26] the Popular Front had the support of votes from anarchists. The Communist Party campaigned under a series of revolutionary slogans; however, they were strongly supportive of the Popular Front government. "Vote Communist to save Spain from Marxism" was a Socialist joke at the time.[27] Devoid of strong areas of working class support, already taken by syndicalism and anarchism, they concentrated on their position within the Popular Front.[27] The election campaign was heated; the possibility of compromise had been destroyed by the left's Asturian rebellion and its cruel repression by the security forces. Both sides used apocalyptic language, declaring that if the other side won, civil war would follow.

34,000 members of the Civil Guards and 17,000 Assault Guards enforced security on election day, many freed from their regular posts by the carabineros. The balloting on 16 February ended with a draw between the left and right, with the center effectively obliterated. In six provinces left-wing groups apparently interfered with registrations or ballots, augmenting leftist results or invalidating rightist pluralities or majorities.[28] In Galicia, in north-west Spain, and orchestrated by the incumbent government; there also, in A Coruña, by the political left. The voting in Granada was forcibly (and unfairly) dominated by the government.[29] In some villages, the police stopped anyone not wearing a collar from voting. Wherever the Socialists were poorly organised, farm workers continued to vote how they were told by their bosses or caciques. Similarly, some right-wing voters were put off from voting in strongly socialist areas.[30] However, such instances were comparatively rare.[31] By the evening, it looked like the Popular Front might win and as a result in some cases crowds broke into prisons to free revolutionaries detained there.[32]

Outcome

Just under 10 million people voted,[32] with an abstention rate of 27-29 per cent, a level of apathy higher than might be suggested by the ongoing political violence.[33] [34] A small number of coerced voters and anarchists formed part of the abstainers.[33] The elections of 1936 were narrowly won by the Popular Front, with vastly smaller resources than the political right, who followed Nazi propaganda techniques.[16] The exact numbers of votes differ among historians; Brenan assigns the Popular Front 4,700,000 votes, the Right around 4,000,000 and the centre 450,000,[35] while Antony Beevor argues the Left won by just 150,000 votes. Stanley Payne reports that, of the 9,864,763 votes cast, the Popular Front and its allies won 4,654,116 votes (47.2%), while the right and its allies won 4,503,505 votes (45.7%), however this was heavily divided between the right and the centre-right. The remaining 526,615 votes (5.4%) were won by the centre and Basque nationalists.[36] It was a comparatively narrow victory in terms of votes, but Paul Preston describes it as a 'triumph of power in the Cortes'[37] – the Popular Front won 267 deputies and the Right only 132, and the imbalance caused by the nature of Spain's electoral system since the 1932 election law came into force. The same system had benefited the political right in 1933.[35] However, Stanley Payne argues that the leftist victory may not have been legitimate; Payne says that in the evening of the day of the elections leftist mobs started to interfere in the balloting and in the registration of votes distorting the results; Payne also argues that President Zamora appointed Manuel Azaña as head of the new government following the Popular Front's early victory even though the election process was incomplete. As a result, the Popular Front was able to register its own victory at the polls and Payne alleges it manipulated its victory to gain extra seats it should not have won. According to Payne, this augmented the Popular Front's victory into one that gave them control of over two-thirds of the seats, allowing it to amend the constitution as it desired. Payne thus argues that the democratic process had ceased to exist.[38] Roberto García and Manuel Tardío also argue that the Popular Front manipulated the results,[39] though this has been contested by Eduardo Calleja and Francisco Pérez, who question the charges of electoral irregularity and argue that the Popular Front would still have won a slight electoral majority even if all of the charges were true.[40]

The political centre did badly. Lerroux's Radicals, incumbent until his government's collapse, were electorally devastated; many of their supporters had been pushed to the right by the increasing instability in Spain. Portela Valladares had formed the Centre Party, but had not had time to build it up.[35] Worried about the problems of a minority party losing out due to the electoral system, he made a pact with the right, but this was not enough to ensure success. Leaders of the centre, Lerroux, Cambó and Melquíades Álvarez, failed to win seats.[35] The Falangist party, under José Antonio Primo de Rivera received only 46,000 votes, a very small fraction of the total cast. This seemed to show little appetite for a takeover of that sort.[41] The allocation of seats between coalition members was a matter of agreement between them.[42] The official results (Spanish; Castilian: escrutinio) were recorded on 20 February.[32] The Basque Party, who had not at the time of the election been part of the Popular Front, would go on to join it.[31] In 20 seats, no alliance or party had secured 40% of the vote; 17 were decided by a second vote on 3 March.[43] In these runoffs, the Popular Front won 8, the Basques 5, the Right 5 and the Centre 2.[44] In May, elections were reheld in two areas of Granada where the new government alleged there had been fraud; both seats were taken from the national Right victory in February by the Left.[44]

Because, unusually, the first round produced an outright majority of deputies elected on a single list of campaign pledges, the results were treated as granting an unprecedented mandate to the winning coalition: some socialists took to the streets to free political prisoners, without waiting for the government to do so officially; similarly, the caretaker government quickly resigned on the grounds that waiting a month for the parliamentary resumption was now unnecessary.[45] In the thirty-six hours following the election, sixteen people were killed (mostly by police officers attempting to maintain order or intervene in violent clashes) and thirty-nine were seriously injured, while fifty churches and seventy conservative political centres were attacked or set ablaze.[46] Almost immediately after the results were known, a group of monarchists asked Robles to lead a coup but he refused. He did, however, ask prime minister Manuel Portela Valladares to declare a state of war before the revolutionary masses rushed into the streets. Franco also approached Valladares to propose the declaration of martial law and calling out of the army. It has been claimed that this was not a coup attempt but more of a "police action" akin to Asturias,[47] [30] Valladares resigned, even before a new government could be formed. However, the Popular Front, which had proved an effective election tool, did not translate into a Popular Front government.[48] Largo Caballero and other elements of the political left were not prepared to work with the republicans, although they did agree to support much of the proposed reforms. Manuel Azaña was called upon to form a government, but would shortly replace Zamora as president.[48] The right reacted as if radical communists had taken control, despite the new cabinet's moderate composition, abandoned the parliamentary option and began to conspire as to how to best overthrow the republic, rather than taking control of it.[37] The military coup in Spain triggered the so-called ‘Spanish Revolution’, a spontaneous popular wave of collectivisation and cooperativism, engaging up to three million people, which was ignited by the victory of the left in the general election of 1936, a wave described by historian James Woodcock as “the last and largest of the world's major anarchist movements”.[49]

First-round results

The below table summarises results of the first round, i.e. of the voting which took place on February 16. It does not take into account elections of the second round, which took place in 5 electoral districts (Álava, Castellón, Guipúzcoa, Soria, Vizcaya provincia) on March 1. It includes results in electoral districts (Cuenca, Granada), where results would be declared invalid, elections annulled and repeated in May.

The numbers given are votes, not voters. Each voter was entitled to vote for a number of candidates; the maximum number of selections allowed differed across the electoral districts, from 16 in Barcelona (city) to 1 in Álava, Ceuta and Melilla. All the selections made for individual candidates (there were 993 contestants running) are summarised. Example: Partido Republicano Federal fielded 3 candidates: Luis Cordero Bel on Frente Popular list in Huelva got 79.667 votes, Bernardino Valle Gracia on Frente Popular list in Las Palmas got 32.900 votes and José Bernal Segado running as independent in Murcia (city) got 1.329 votes, which produced sub-totals of 112.567 votes on Frente Popular lists and 1.329 votes for independents, which totals in 113.896 votes.

All tables purporting to present number of voters, which supported specific parties or blocs, are based on various statistical methodologies, constructed ex post by historians and intended to translate the number of votes into the number of voters; this applies also to tables presented in the section below. Their accuracy might be and is disputed. The below table is not based on any such data manipulations and summarises number of votes received by individual candidates as recorded by electoral authorities.[50]

partyFrente
Popular
35.514.447
CEDA-led alliances
32.977.932
Portela-led alliances
2.582.542
independents & own lists
1.772.687
TOTAL
SPAIN
72.847.608
Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas 15524558 60067 15584625
Partido Socialista Obrero Español 11827855 15187 11843042
Izquierda Republicana 9353291 186815 6457 9546563
Unión Republicana 4150491 87116 19231 4256838
non-party candidates 1142396 2310955 202587 256257 3912195
Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya 3701939 3701939
Partido del Centro Democrático 2072434 1385573 3458007
Lliga Regionalista 2705152 2705152
Renovación Española 2599381 52689 2652070
Partido Republicano Radical 2040614 997 479987 2521598
Partido Comunista de España 2260367 2260367
Comunión Tradicionalista 2120091 62833 2182924
Partido Agrario Español 194143 1493430 171126 1858699
Partido Republicano Progresista 868497 137630 1006127
Partido Republicano Liberal-Demócrata 905244 76480 19189 1000913
Acció Catalana Republicana 896275 896275
Unió Socialista de Catalunya 718274 718274
Partido Nacionalista Vasco 431970 431970
Partido Galleguista 426624 4991 431615
Partido Republicano Conservador 272674 108170 380844
Partido de Unión Republicana Autonomista 311201 311201
Partit Nacionalista Republicà d'Esquerra 278111 278111
Partit Català Proletari 256880 256880
Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista 256723 256723
Partido Republicano Federal 112567 1329 113896
Partido Sindicalista 97667 97667
Falange Española 82939 82939
Partido Nacionalista Español 64902 64902
Acción Nacionalista Vasca 34987 34987
Acción Católica Obrera 265 265

Final results

|-!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" colspan="2"|!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"|Party!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;"|Abbr.!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;"|Voters!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;"|%|-|style="background-color:red" rowspan="3"| |style="background-color:#E75480"||style="text-align:left;"|Popular Front (Frente Popular)|style="text-align:right;"|FP|style="text-align:right;"|3,750,900|style="text-align:right;"|39.63|-|style="background-color:orange"||style="text-align:left;"|Left Front (Front d’Esquerres)[51] |style="text-align:right;"|FE|style="text-align:right;"|700,400|style="text-align:right;"|7.40|-|style="background-color:red"||style="text-align:right;" colspan=2|Total Popular Front:|4,451,300 |47.03|-|style="background-color:blue" rowspan="9"| |style="background-color:#0000C8"||style="text-align:left;"|Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups and right[52] |style="text-align:right;"|CEDA-RE|style="text-align:right;"|1,709,200|style="text-align:right;"|18.06|-|style="background-color:#0000C8"||style="text-align:left;"|Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups and Radical Republican Party[53] |style="text-align:right;"|CEDA-PRR|style="text-align:right;"|943,400|style="text-align:right;"|9.97|-|style="background-color:#0000C8"||style="text-align:left;"|Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups and centre[54] |style="text-align:right;"|CEDA-PCNR|style="text-align:right;"|584,300|style="text-align:right;"|6.17|-|style="background-color:#008080"||style="text-align:left;"|Front Català d'Ordre - Lliga Catalana |style="text-align:right;"|LR|style="text-align:right;"|483,700|style="text-align:right;"|5.11|-|style="background-color:#0000C8"||style="text-align:left;"|Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups and Progressive Republican Party[55] |style="text-align:right;"|CEDA-PRP|style="text-align:right;"|307,500 |style="text-align:right;"|3.25|-|style="background-color:#0000C8"||style="text-align:left;"|Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups and Conservative Republican Party[56] |style="text-align:right;"|CEDA-PRC|style="text-align:right;"|189,100|style="text-align:right;"|2.00|-|style="background-color:#0000C8"||style="text-align:left;"|Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups and Liberal Democrat Republican Party[57] |style="text-align:right;"|CEDA-PRLD|style="text-align:right;"|150,900|style="text-align:right;"|1.59|-|style="background-color:#808000"||style="text-align:left;"|Spanish Agrarian Party (Partido Agrario Español)[58] |style="text-align:right;"|PAE|style="text-align:right;"|30,900|style="text-align:right;"|0.33|-|style="background-color:blue"||style="text-align:right;" colspan=2|Total National Bloc:|4,375,800 |46.48|-|style="background-color:#3CB371" colspan=2||style="text-align:left;"|Party of the Democratic Centre (Partido del Centro Democrático)|style="text-align:right;"|PCD|style="text-align:right;"|333,200|style="text-align:right;"|3.51|-|style="background-color:#008000" colspan=2||style="text-align:left;"|Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco)|style="text-align:right;"|EAJ-PNV|style="text-align:right;"|150,100 |style="text-align:right;"|1.59|-|style="background-color:#DC143C" colspan=2||style="text-align:left;"|Radical Republican Party (Partido Republicano Radical)[59] |style="text-align:right;"|PRR|style="text-align:right;"|124,700|style="text-align:right;"|1.32|-|style="background-color:#0038A8" colspan=2||style="text-align:left;"|Conservative Republican Party (Partido Republicano Conservador)[60] |style="text-align:right;"|PRC|style="text-align:right;"|23,000|style="text-align:right;"|0.24|-|style="background-color:#0073CF" colspan=2||style="text-align:left;"|Progressive Republican Party (Partido Republicano Progresista)[61] |style="text-align:right;"|PRP|style="text-align:right;"|10,500|style="text-align:right;"|0.11|-|style="background-color:#92000A" colspan=2||style="text-align:left;"|Falange Española de las JONS[62] |style="text-align:right;"||style="text-align:right;"|6,800|style="text-align:right;"|0.07|-|style="text-align:left;" colspan=4|Total|style="text-align:right;"|9,465,600|style="text-align:right;"|100|-|}

Seats

AffiliationPartyName in Spanish (* indicates Catalan, ** indicates Galician)Abbr.Seats (May)Seats (Feb)
UnknownPayne
Popular Front
Spanish Socialist Workers' PartyPartido Socialista Obrero EspañolPSOE8988
Izquierda RepublicanaIR8079
Unión RepublicanaUR3634
Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya*ERC2122
Communist Party of SpainPartido Comunista de EspañaPCE1514
Catalan Action ECAcció Catalana Republicana*ACR55
Socialist Union of Catalonia ECUnió Socialista de Catalunya*USC43
Galicianist Party IRPartido Galeguista**PG33
Federal Democratic Republican PartyPartido Republicano Democrático FederalPRD Fed.22
Union of Rabassaires ECUnió de Rabassaires*UdR22
National Left Republican Party ECPartit Nacionalista Republicà d'Esquerra*PNRE21
Valencian Left ECEsquerra Valenciana*EV11
Syndicalist PartyPartido Sindicalista 12
Independent Syndicalist PartyPartido Sindicalista IndependientePSI1
Workers' Party of Marxist UnificationPartido Obrero de Unificación MarxistaPOUM11
Proletarian Catalan PartyPartit Català Proletari*PCP11
Independent Republicans (Leftist)Republicanos Independientes (de Izquierdas)2
Socialist Independents (Payne: "Leftist independents")Socialista Independiente 14
Total Popular Front:[63] 267263[64]
Centre & PNVCentre Republicans
Party of the Democratic CentrePartido del Centro DemocráticoPCD2021
Progressive Republican Party R [65] Partido Republicano ProgresistaPRC66
Radical Republican Party[66] Partido Republicano RadicalPRR89
Conservative Republican Party RPartido Republicano ConservadorPRC32
Liberal Democrat Republican Party BN[67] Partido Republicano Liberal DemócrataPRLD11
Republican Independents[68] Republicanos Independientes 3
PNV GroupBasque Nationalist PartyPartido Nacionalista VascoPNV95
Basque Social-ChristianSocialcristiano Vasco1
Total Centre & PNV Group:6054
Right
Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous RightConfederación Española de Derechas AutónomasCEDA97101
National BlocBloque Nacional (Renovación Española)RE1313
Catalan League[69] Lliga Catalana*LC1212
Spanish Agrarian PartyPartido Agrario EspañolPAE1111
Traditionalist CommunionComunión TradicionalistaCT1215
Independent monarchistsMonárquicos Independientes 2
Spanish Nationalist Party BNPartido Nacionalista EspañolPNE11
Partido MesócrataMesocratic Party 1
Mallorcan Regionalist PartyPartido Regionalista de MallorcaPRM1
CatholicCatólico11
Rightist IndependentsIndependientes de Derecha 810
Total Right:146156
Total: 473
Notes
R Joined the Republican parliamentary group together with the PCNR.
EC Joined the Esquerra Catalana parliamentary group together with ERC.
IR Joined the Izquierda Republicana parliamentary group with IR.
BN Joined the Bloque Nacional parliamentary group with RE.

References

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. compared to the results of the Republican Action (5 seats), the Galician Republican Party (6 seats) and the Independent Radical Socialist Republican Party (3 seats) in 1933, who merged to form IR in 1934
  2. Web site: Revista de Libros: «Las elecciones generales de febrero de 1936: una reconsideración historiográfica» de Enrique Moradiellos. 2021-07-05. www.revistadelibros.com. 11 September 2017 . es.
  3. Book: Arrarás Iribarren, Joaquín. Historia de la Segunda República Española. Editora Nacional. 1964. Madrid.
  4. Gobernación. Espana Ministerio de la. 1939. Dictamen de la Comisión sobre ilegitimidad de poderes actuantes en 18 de Julio de 1936. Editora Nacional .
  5. Book: Bécarud, Jean. La Segunda República Española. Taurus. 1967. Madrid.
  6. Book: Tusell, Javier. Las elecciones del Frente Popular. Edicusa. 1971. Madrid.
  7. Book: Payne, Stanley G.. La revolución española (1936-1939) : un estudio sobre la singularidad de la Guerra Civil. 2019. 978-84-670-5533-7. Barcelona. 1100348435.
  8. Book: Álvarez Tardío, Manuel. 1936, fraude y violencia en las elecciones del Frente Popular. 2017. Roberto Villa García. 978-84-670-4946-6. Barcelona. 976020486.
  9. González Calleja. Eduardo. Sánchez Pérez. Francisco. 2018-10-01. Revisando el revisionismo. A propósito del libro 1936. Fraude y violencia en las elecciones del Frente Popular. Historia Contemporánea. 3. 58. 851–881. 10.1387/hc.19831. 240078416 . 2340-0277. free. 10810/38374. free.
  10. Gaston Leval, Social Reconstruction in Spain, London, 1938. Discussed in Woodcock, p. 373.
  11. see James Woodcock, Anarchism (1960), London: Penguin, 1970, pp. 365–375.
  12. Thomas (1961). p. 78.
  13. Thomas (1961). p. 80.
  14. Thomas (1961). p. 88.
  15. Preston (2006). p. 81.
  16. Preston (2006). pp. 82–83.
  17. Brenan (1950). p. 294.
  18. Thomas (1961). p. 89.
  19. Brenan (1950). pp. 294–295.
  20. Brenan (1950). p. 266.
  21. Payne, S.G. and Palacios, J., 2014. Franco: A personal and political biography. University of Wisconsin Pres. p. 101
  22. Tardío, Manuel Álvarez. "The Impact of Political Violence During the Spanish General Election of 1936." Journal of Contemporary History 48, no. 3 (2013): 463–485.
  23. Brenan (1950). p. 289.
  24. Beevor, Antony. The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. Hachette UK, 2012.
  25. Beevor (2006). pp. 34–35.
  26. Thomas (1961). pp. 91–2.
  27. Brenan (1950). p. 307.
  28. Payne, S.G. and Palacios, J., 2014. Franco: A personal and political biography. University of Wisconsin Pres. p. 102
  29. Payne (2006). pp. 174–5.
  30. Brenan (1950). p. 300.
  31. Thomas (1961). p. 93.
  32. Payne (2006). p. 175.
  33. Payne (2006). p. 177.
  34. exact figures as to the number of voters, the number of electors and the turnout differ. The number of voters is quoted as 9.864.783 (Stanley G. Payne, Spain’s First Democracy, Madison 1993, ISBN 9780299136703, p. 274), 9.729.454 (Albert Carreras, Xavier Tafunell (eds.), Estadísticas históricas de España, vol. I, Bilbao 2005, ISBN 849651501X, p. 1098), 9.687.108 (Manuel Álvarez Tardío, Roberto Villa García, 1936, fraude y violencia en las elecciones del Frente Popular, Barcelona 2017, ISBN 9788467049466, p. 412) or 9.572.908 (Juan J. Linz, Jesús de Miguel, Hacia un análisis regional de las elecciones de 1936 en España, [in:] Revista Española de la Opinion Pública 48 (1977), p. 34. Internet sources might provide even different figures, e.g. 9.792.700 (HistoriaElectoral website). The number of electors, e.g. Spaniards entitled to vote, is given as 13.578.056 (Álvarez Tardío, Villa García 2017, p. 412), 13.553.710 (Payne 1993, p. 274) or 13.338.262 (Carreras, Tafunell 2005, p. 1098). Accordingly, the turnout rate which emerges from these figures might be calculated as 72,97% (Carreras, Tafunell 2005, p. 1098), 72,78 (Payne 1993, p. 274) or 71,34% (Álvarez Tardío, Villa García 2017, p. 412).
  35. Brenan (1950). p. 298.
  36. Payne, Stanley G. Spain's first democracy: the Second Republic, 1931–1936. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1993, p.274
  37. Preston (2006). p. 83.
  38. Payne, S.G. and Palacios, J., 2014. Franco: A personal and political biography. University of Wisconsin Pres. p. 105
  39. García, Roberto Villa, and Manuel Álvarez Tardío. 1936. Fraude y violencia en las elecciones del Frente Popular. Espasa, 2017.
  40. Calleja, Eduardo González, and Francisco Sánchez Pérez. "Revisando el revisionismo. A propósito del libro 1936. Fraude y violencia en las elecciones del Frente Popular." Historia Contemporánea 3, no. 58 (2018).
  41. Beevor (2006). pp. 38–39
  42. Brenan (1950). p. 299.
  43. Thomas (1961). pp. 93–94.
  44. Thomas (1961). p. 100.
  45. Beevor (2006). p. 38
  46. Alvarez Tardio, Manuel. "Mobilization and political violence following the Spanish general elections of 1936." REVISTA DE ESTUDIOS POLITICOS 177 (2017): 147–179.
  47. Jensen, Geoffrey. Franco. Potomac Books, Inc., 2005, p.66
  48. Brenan (1950). p. 301.
  49. James Woodcock, Anarchism (1962), London: Penguin, 1970, 374)
  50. based on data as reproduced in Manuel Alvarez Tardio, Roberto Villa Garcia, 1936. Fraude y violencia en las elecciones del Frente Popular, Barcelona 2017, ISBN 9788467054736, pp. 580-599
  51. Running only in Catalonia
  52. Coalition of right-wing parties including CEDA in 30 constituencies
  53. Coalition of right-wing parties and the Radicals in 10 constituencies
  54. Coalition of right-wing parties and the centre in 6 constituencies
  55. Coalition of right-wing parties and the PRP in 4 constituencies in Andalusia
  56. Coalition of right-wing parties and the PRC in Lugo and A Coruña
  57. Running only in Oviedo
  58. Independent, separate Agrarian lists only in Burgos and Huelva
  59. Independent, separate Radical lists in Cáceres, Castellón, Ceuta, Málaga (prov.), Ourense, Santander, Tenerife, Las Palmas and Córdoba
  60. Running only in Soria
  61. Running only in Ciudad Real
  62. Running only in Oviedo, Sevilla, Toledo and Valladolid
  63. Lozano, Elecciones de 1936.
  64. Payne (2006) gives a total of 262.
  65. All 6 in Andalusia, where the party is running with the Right
  66. Four of them in constituencies in which they run with the Right
  67. The 2 of them in Oviedo, where they present with the Right.
  68. 3 elected on centre-right lists and 1 on his own. Includes former prime minister Chapaprieta, minister Villalobos, former radical deputy Pascual and Galician rep Cornide.
  69. Heads the Front Català d'Ordre