The Instruction of 1 January 1810, which was used as the electoral law for the election of the Spanish Constituent Parliament Las Cortes that drafted one of the first free constitutions in the world (that of 19 March 1812 or the Constitution of Cadiz) contains the recognition of equal and single, active and passive universal--male--suffrage from the age of twenty-five, which was unusual for that period.
However, it was a third-degree indirect vote, based on the structure of the nation, in which the citizens jointly elected delegates in the municipalities. These delegates, in turn, did likewise in the regions. And the latter determined who the representatives would be in the Constituent Assembly. This system was intended to moderate the supposed progressive excesses anticipated with male universal suffrage in a conservative sense and structure an incipient system of representation by means of groups of elected persons that coordinated among themselves for the election at the next level.
Overcoming this procedure of elections through delegates was the consequence of the extension of universal suffrage, now without any restrictions, on the one hand, and on the other, of the birth and development of political parties. Thus they achieved the mediation previously done through the delegates in a more effective manner.
Where the delegate system does still remain today, most singularly in the United States, it has completely lost its original meaning inasmuch as delegates are appointed to political parties or candidacies beforehand. The system is maintained strictly for traditional reasons, as in practice the
elections are by direct universal suffrage.
In other words, the choice between direct elections and delegates to structure an electoral process is no longer possible today for those who are in a position to draft an electoral law and, as a consequence, it is no longer an element of the electoral system.
