National Congress of Chile

From Open Encyclopedia

Politics - Politics portal Chile Image:Flag of Chile.svg This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Chile

Constitution of Chile President of Chile National Congress: Senate - Chamber of Deputies Political parties in Chile Elections in Chile: President: 1826 - 1827 - 1829 - 1831 1836 - 1841 - 1846 - 1851 - 1856 - 1861 1866 - 1871 - 1876 - 1881 - 1886 1891 - 1896 - 1901 - 1906 - 1910 1915 - 1920 - 1925 - 1927 - 1931 1932 - 1938 - 1941 - 1946 - 1952 1958 - 1964 - 1970 - 1989 - 1993 1999 - 2005 Parliament: 2005 Foreign relations
^edit

The National Congress (Spanish: Congreso Nacional) is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Chile.

The National Congress of Chile was founded on July 4 1811. It is a bicameral legislature comprised by the Chamber of Deputies (lower house), of 120 members and by the Senate (upper house), formed by 49 parliamentarians.

The organisation of Congress and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of the current constitution and by the Constitutional Organic Law No. 18,918. Congress meets in the Chile Congress building, which was built during the last years of the Pinochet regime and stands in the port city of Valparaíso, some 140 km west of the capital, Santiago. This new building replaced the old National Congress, located in downtown Santiago.

[edit]

Latest election results

Summary of the 11 December 2005 Chile Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados) and Senate (Senado) election results: ^edit
Coalitions and parties		Votes	%	Deputies	Votes	%	Senators 2005¹	Senators 2001²	Senators total
A	Independent Regional Force (Fuerza Regional Independiente)		1.18	1		0.64	0	0	0
	National Alliance of Independents (Alianza Nacional de los Independientes)		0.31	0		0.28	0	0	0
	Regionalist Action Party of Chile (Partido de Acción Regionalista de Chile)		0.41	1
	Independents List A		0.46	0		0.36	0	0	0
B	Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de Partidos Por la Democracia)		51.77	65		55.73	11	9	20
	Christian Democrat Party (Partido Demócrata Cristiano)		20.81	20		29.65	5	2	7
	Party for Democracy (Partido por la Democracia)		15.45	21		10.74	1	2	3
	Socialist Party of Chile (Partido Socialista de Chile)		9.98	15		12.12	4	4	8
	Social Democrat Radical Party (Partido Radical Socialdemócrata)		3.54	7		2.44	1	1	2
	Independents List B		2.00	2		0.79	0	0	0
C	Together We Can Do More (Juntos Podemos Más)		7.38	0		5.98	0	0	0
	Communist Party of Chile (Partido Comunista de Chile)		5.13	0		2.17	0	0	0
	Humanist Party of Chile (Partido Humanista de Chile)		1.56	0		1.46	0	0	0
	Independents List C		0.7	0		2.35	0	0	0
D	Alliance for Chile (Alianza por Chile)		38.70	54		37.26	8	9	17
	Independent Democrat Union (Unión Demócrata Independiente)		22.34	33		21.56	5	4	9
	National Renewal (Renovación Nacional)		14.13	19		10.8	3	5	8
	Independents List D		2.23	2		4.90	0	0	0
Independent (off-pact)			0.95	0		0.38	1	0	1
Total			100.0	120		100.0	20	18	38
Source: Interior Ministry ¹ Only 20 out of 38 seats were contested in this election. ² These 18 seats were contested in the 2001 election.