Ottoman electoral law in the context of "Chamber of Deputies (Ottoman Empire)"

The First Constitutional Era (Ottoman Turkish: مشروطيت; Turkish: Birinci Meşrutiyet Devri) was a period of constitutional monarchy in the Ottoman Empire from 23 December 1876 until 14 February 1878. It began with the promulgation of the Ottoman constitution, written by members of the Young Ottomans. The Young Ottomans were dissatisfied by the Tanzimat and pushed for a constitutional government similar to that in Europe. The constitutional period started with the dethroning of Sultan Abdul Aziz. After Murad V's ephemeral reign, Abdul Hamid II took his place as Sultan. The era ended with the suspension of the Ottoman Parliament and the constitution by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, with which he restored absolute monarchy.

The first constitutional era did not include a party system. At the time, the Ottoman Parliament (known as the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire) was seen as the voice of the people but not as a venue for the formation of political parties and organizations. The elections for the Parliament were held in accordance with the provisional electoral regulations. The General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire was composed in two houses. The lower house of the bicameral legislature was the Chamber of Deputies, while the upper house was the Senate, or Chamber of Notables. The initial selection of deputies was made by administrative councils in the provinces (also called Meclis-i Umumi).

During the late Ottoman Empire, some elements of government were democratized. Seven general elections were held for the Chamber of Deputies, the popularly elected lower house of the General Assembly, the Ottoman parliament, two in the First Constitutional Era (1877–1878), and five in the Second Constitutional Era (1908–1920). The Chamber of Deputies used Ottoman electoral law. Local elections were held for provincial (Vilayet) assemblies, though they quickly fell out of fashion. In addition, Armenian, Protestant, and Jewish millets had their own assemblies: an Armenian National Assembly, a Protestant General Assembly, and a Jewish General Assembly, which held millet wide elections, with varying degrees of suffrage granted to laity outside Istanbul.

Before the Tanzimat, villages had long elected mukhtars, and for minorities: local ethnarchs, or kocabaşı.