Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Last updated
Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation

Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina
2023–2025 Period
Camara de diputados de Argentina.svg
Type
Type
Term limits
None
Leadership
Martín Menem, LLA
since 10 December 2023 [1]
1st Vice President
Cecilia Moreau, UP
since 10 December 2023
First Minority Leader
Germán Martínez, UP
since 1 February 2022
Second Minority Leader
Cristian Ritondo, PRO
since 10 December 2019
Structure
Seats257 (List)
Camara de Diputados de la Nacion Argentina (2023-2025).svg
Political groups
Government (40)
  •   LLA (40)

Allies (42)

Independent (70)

Opposition (104)

Length of term
4 years
Elections
Party-list proportional representation
D'Hondt method
Last election
 26 October 2025
(127 seats)
Next election
 October 2027
(130 seats)
Meeting place
Recinto de la Camara de Diputados de la Nacion.jpg
Chamber of Deputies, Congress Palace,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Website
hcdn.gob.ar

The Chamber of Deputies (Spanish : Cámara de Diputados de la Nación), officially the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation, is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress (Spanish : Congreso de la Nación). It is made up of 257 national deputies who are elected in multi-member constituencies corresponding with the territories of the 23 provinces of Argentina (plus the Federal Capital) by party list proportional representation. Elections to the Chamber are held every two years, so that half of its members are up in each election, making it a rare example of staggered elections used in a lower house.

Contents

The Constitution of Argentina lays out certain attributions that are unique to the Chamber of Deputies. The Chamber holds exclusive rights to levy taxes; to draft troops; and to accuse the president, cabinet ministers, and members of the Supreme Court before the Chamber of Senators. Additionally, the Chamber of Deputies receives for consideration bills presented by popular initiative.

The Chamber of Deputies is presided over by the president of the Chamber (Spanish : Presidente de la Cámara), who is deputized by three vice presidents. All of them are elected by the chamber itself.

Current composition

It has 257 seats and one-half of the members are elected every two years to serve four-year terms by the people of each district (23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires) using proportional representation (list PR), D'Hondt formula with a 3% of the district registered voters threshold, and the following distribution:

By province

ProvinceDeputiesPopulation (2010)
Buenos Aires City 252,890,151
Buenos Aires 7015,625,084
Catamarca 5367,828
Chaco 71,053,466
Chubut 5506,668
Córdoba 183,304,825
Corrientes 7993,338
Entre Ríos 91,236,300
Formosa 5527,895
Jujuy 6672,260
La Pampa 5316,940
La Rioja 5331,847
Mendoza 101,741,610
Misiones 71,097,829
Neuquén 5550,334
Río Negro 5633,374
Salta 71,215,207
San Juan 6680,427
San Luis 5431,588
Santa Cruz 5272,524
Santa Fe 193,200,736
Santiago del Estero 7896,461
Tierra del Fuego 5126,190
Tucumán 91,448,200

By political groups

127 of the current members of the Chamber of Deputies for the 2025-2027 period were elected in the 2025, while the remaining 130 were elected in 2023 legislative election. The governing La Libertad Avanza alliance, to which President Javier Milei belongs, is the second largest parliamentary bloc with 99 deputies, while the main opposition, Union for the Homeland, holds the first minority with 104 deputies.

BlocLeader
Union for the Homeland (104) Germán Martínez
La Libertad Avanza (99) Gabriel Bornoroni
PRO (31) Mauricio Macri
United Provinces (12) Juan Schiaretti
Radical Civic Union (1) Rodrigo de Loredo
Workers' Left Front – Unity (4) Myriam Bregman
Federal Innovation (3) Pamela Calletti
Production and Labour (2)Nancy Picón
For Santa Cruz (1) Sergio Acevedo
Source: hcdn.gob.ar (last update: 29 September 2024)

Requirements

Individuals elected to congress must be at least twenty five years old with at least four years of active citizenship. The elected individuals have to have been naturalized in the province in which they are being elected, or have at least two years of immediate residency in said province. (Art. 48 of the Argentine Constitution).

History

The Chamber of Deputies was provided for in the Constitution of Argentina, ratified on May 1, 1853. Eligibility requisites are that members be at least twenty-five years old, and have been a resident of the province they represent for at least two years; as congressional seats are elected at-large, members nominally represent their province, rather than a district. [4]

Otherwise patterned after Article One of the United States Constitution per legal scholar Juan Bautista Alberdi's treatise, Bases de la Constitución Argentina, the chamber was originally apportioned in one seat per 33,000 inhabitants. The constitution made no provision for a national census, however, and because the Argentine population doubled every twenty years from 1870 to 1930 as a result of immigration (disproportionately benefiting Buenos Aires and the Pampas area provinces), censuses were conducted generationally, rather than every decade, until 1947. [5]

Apportionment controversy

The distribution of the Chamber of Deputies is regulated since 1982 by Law 22.847, also called Ley Bignone, enacted by the last Argentine dictator, General Reynaldo Bignone, ahead of the 1983 general elections. This law established that, initially, each province shall have one deputy per 161,000 inhabitants, with standard rounding; after this is calculated, each province is granted three more deputies. If a province has fewer than five deputies, the number of deputies for that province is increased to reach that minimum.

Controversially, apportionment remains based on the 1980 population census, and has not been modified since 1983; national censuses since then have been conducted in 1991, 2001, 2010, and 2022. The minimum of five seat per province allots the smaller ones a disproportionately large representation, as well. Accordingly, this distribution does not reflect Argentina's current population balance. [6]

Presidents of the Chamber

The president of the Chamber is elected by a majority of the Chamber's members. Traditionally, the presidency is held by a member of the party or alliance of the national executive, though exceptions have occurred, such as in 2001, when the Peronist Eduardo Camaño was elected president of the Chamber during the presidency of the radical Fernando de la Rúa. [7] The officeholders for this post since 1983 have been:

PresidentPartyTerm startTerm endProvince
Juan Carlos Pugliese UCR 29 November 19833 April 1989Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires Province
Leopoldo Moreau UCR 26 April 19896 July 1989Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires Province
Alberto Pierri PJ 6 July 19891 December 1999Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires Province
Rafael Pascual UCR 1 December 19995 December 2001Bandera de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.svg City of Buenos Aires
Eduardo Camaño PJ 5 December 20016 December 2005Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires Province
Alberto Balestrini PJ–FPV 6 December 200512 December 2007Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires Province
Eduardo Fellner PJ–FPV 12 December 20076 December 2011Bandera de la Provincia de Jujuy.svg Jujuy
Julián Domínguez PJ–FPV 6 December 20114 December 2015Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires Province
Emilio Monzó PRO–C 4 December 201510 December 2019Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires Province
Sergio Massa FDT 10 December 20192 August 2022Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires Province
Cecilia Moreau FDT/UP 2 August 20227 December 2023Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires Province
Martín Menem LLA 7 December 2023IncumbentFlag of La Rioja province in Argentina.svg La Rioja (Argentina)

Current authorities

Current leadership positions include:

TitleOfficeholderPartyProvince
Chamber President Martín Menem La Libertad Avanza Flag of La Rioja province in Argentina.svg La Rioja
First Vice President Cecilia Moreau Union for the Homeland Bandera de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.svg Buenos Aires
Second Vice President Julio Cobos Radical Civic Union Bandera de la Provincia de Mendoza.svg Mendoza
Third Vice PresidentVacant—
Parliamentary SecretaryTomás Ise Figueroa—
Administrative SecretaryLaura Emilia Oriolo—
Coordinating Secretary—

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Con amplio acuerdo de la oposición, Martín Menem fue elegido presidente de la Cámara de Diputados". Infobae.
  2. ↑ https://www.lapoliticaonline.com/politica/jaldo-confirma-su-distanciamiento-de-milei-no-va-a-poder-gobernar-si-no-incluye-a-las-provincias/
  3. ↑ "Jaldo pidió no acompañar el rechazo del peronismo a la ley de Milei y se retobó Yedlin". La Política Online (in Spanish). 24 January 2024. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
  4. ↑ "Honorable Senado de la Nación: Constitución Nacional". Archived from the original on May 13, 2012.
  5. ↑ Indec: Historia de los censos Archived 2016-05-09 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  6. ↑ Reynoso, Diego Esteban (June 2012). "El reparto de la representación. Antecedentes y distorsiones de la asignación de diputados a las provincias". Postdata (in Spanish). 17 (1). Buenos Aires: 153-192. ISSN   1851-9601.
  7. ↑ Domínguez, Juan José (14 October 2021). "Santoro dijo que la propuesta de Vidal de exigir "la Presidencia de la Cámara de Diputados no había ocurrido nunca"". Chequeado (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 December 2021.

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