General Assembly of Uruguay

General Assembly of Uruguay Asamblea General de Uruguay
49th Legislature of the Chamber of Senators 49th Legislature of the Chamber of Deputies
Type
Type	Bicameral
Houses	Chamber of Senators Chamber of Deputies
Leadership
President of the General Assembly & Senate	Beatriz Argimón, National Party since March 1, 2020
President of the Chamber of Representatives	Ana Olivera, Broad Front since March 1, 2024
Structure
Seats	129 members 99 deputies 30 senators
Senate political groups	Government   National Party (10)   Colorado Party (4)   Open Cabildo (3) Opposition   Broad Front (13)
Chamber of Representatives political groups	Government (56)   National Party (30)   Colorado Party (13)   Open Cabildo (11)   Independent Party (1)   Partido de la Gente (1) Opposition (43)   Broad Front (42)   PERI (1)
Elections
Senate voting system	Proportional representation
Last Senate election	27 October 2024
Last Chamber of Representatives election	27 October 2024
Meeting place
Palacio Legislativo, Montevideo
Website
www.parlamento.gub.uy

The General Assembly of Uruguay (Spanish : Asamblea General de Uruguay) is the bicameral legislature of the government of Uruguay, and consists of two chambers: the Chamber of Senators and the Chamber of Representatives. General Assembly has 130 voting members: 99 representatives and 30 senators, the Vice President of the Republic, who serves as President of the General Assembly, and the Senate has the right to vote. The legislature meets in the Legislative Palace in Montevideo. Both senators and representatives are chosen through proportional representation for five-year terms. ^[1]

The General Assembly holds its sessions in the Chamber of Representatives of the Legislative Palace. During the 19th century, the legislature met in the Montevideo Cabildo.

History

In 1828, on the initiative of Juan Antonio Lavalleja, delegates were elected to what was to be the Parliament of the Eastern Province of Río de la Plata. As a consequence of the Treaty of Montevideo, such institution became the General Constituent and Legislative Assembly of the State, and had among other tasks the drafting of the country's first Constitution. ^[2]

The Assembly was unicameral. But since the establishment of the Constitution in 1830, the Uruguayan Parliament became bicameral, and has remained so to this day. The voting system of its members also changed: during the 19th century, voting was reserved for a minority, and senators represented departments. Later, the secret and universal vote was established, and the representativeness of the senators, who are elected at the national level, was reformulated. ^[3]

Attributes

The ordinary sessions span is from March 1 to December 15, or until September 15 in the event that elections are held, since the new Assembly must begin its sessions on February 15 of the following year. ^[4]

Article Ninety of the Uruguayan Constitution requires that members of the Chamber of Representatives must be aged at least 25 and have been a citizen of Uruguay for five years. ^[5] While Article Ninety-eight requires that the members of the Senate must be at least 30 years old and have been Uruguayan citizens for seven years. ^[6]

The General Assembly is entitled to politically judge the conduct of the Ministers of State, to declare war and to approve or reject peace treaties, alliances, commerce, and conventions or contracts of any nature that the Executive Power enters into with foreign powers and designate every year the necessary armed force, as well as allowing foreign troops to enter the country. Denying or granting the departure of national forces outside the nation is also among the functions of the Assembly. The creation of new Departments, the setting of their limits, as well as the establishment of customs and export and import duties concern the legislative power, in addition to other functions established in Article Eighty-Five of the Constitution. ^[7]

Latest elections

This section is an excerpt from 2024 Uruguayan general election § Results.[ edit ]

As a result of the high number of small parties not meeting the mathematical threshold to obtain representation in the Senate, the Broad Front won 16 of the 30 seats despite not achieving a majority of the valid votes. On the other hand, no coalition secured a majority in the Chamber of Representatives. ^[8] The blank and invalid votes represented almost 5% and more than 100,000 votes, a record high.

Party		Presidential candidate	First round		Second round		Seats
			Votes	%	Votes	%	Chamber	+/–	Senate	+/–
	Broad Front	Yamandú Orsi	1,071,826	46.12	1,212,833	52.00	48	+6	16	+3
	National Party	Álvaro Delgado	655,426	28.20	1,119,537	48.00	29	–1	9	–1
	Colorado Party	Andrés Ojeda	392,592	16.89			17	+4	5	+1
	Sovereign Identity	Gustavo Salle  [ es ]	65,796	2.83			2	New	0	New
	Open Cabildo	Guido Manini Ríos	60,549	2.61			2	–9	0	–3
	Independent Party	Pablo Mieres	41,618	1.79			1	0	0	0
	Environmental Constitutional Party  [ es ]	Eduardo Lust	11,865	0.51			0	New	0	New
	Popular Assembly	Gonzalo Martínez	10,102	0.43			0	New	0	New
	Partido Ecologista Radical Intransigente	César Vega	9,281	0.40			0	–1	0	0
	For Necessary Changes	Guillermo Franchi	3,183	0.14			0	New	0	New
	Republican Advance Party	Martín Pérez Banchero  [ es ]	1,909	0.08			0	New	0	New
Total			2,324,147	100.00	2,332,370	100.00	99	0	30	0
Valid votes			2,324,147	95.10	2,332,370	94.34
Invalid votes			87,398	3.58	100,261	4.06
Blank votes			32,356	1.32	39,542	1.60
Total votes			2,443,901	100.00	2,472,173	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			2,727,120	89.61	2,727,120	90.65
Source: Corte Electoral (First Round) Corte Electoral (Second Round) El Observador (Chamber and Senate)

Library of the Legislative Power

Library of the Legislative Power.

Main article: Legislative Library of Uruguay

The Library of the Legislative Power of Uruguay is a specialized institution whose main objective is to assist Uruguayan legislators and the cultural development of the community in the fulfillment of its functions, in order to provide documentation, information and advice to citizens, thanks to extensive bibliographic, jurisprudential, doctrinal and legislative collection. ^[9] It is considered the second most important library in Uruguay, behind the National Library, due to the large collection and the status of parliamentary and public library. ^[10] The current library was founded on August 25, 1929, and has its origin in the unification of the libraries of the Chamber of Representatives and the Chamber of Senators. ^[11]

Gallery

• 
  Senate
• 
  Chamber of Representatives

See also

• Chamber of Deputies of Uruguay
• Senate of Uruguay
• Politics of Uruguay
• List of legislatures by country

References

1. "Cámara de Senadores | Parlamento". parlamento.gub.uy. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
2. "WebCite query result". www.webcitation.org. Archived from the original on 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2020-03-27.{{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
3. "Historia del Parlamento | Parlamento". parlamento.gub.uy. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
4. "Asamblea General | Parlamento". parlamento.gub.uy. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
5. "Cámara de Representantes | Parlamento". parlamento.gub.uy. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
6. "Cámara de Senadores | Parlamento". parlamento.gub.uy. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
7. "Constitución de la República Oriental del Uruguay". www.impo.com.uy. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
8. Batschke, Nayara; Debre, Isabel (29 October 2024). "Uruguay's presidential runoff will be tight. But with rivals in agreement, it's no nail-biter". Associated Press . Retrieved 29 October 2024.
9. "Biblioteca del Poder Legislativo".
10. "Biblioteca del Poder Legislativo celebra el Día Nacional del libro". Diario La República (in Spanish). 2019-05-25. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
11. "Library of the Legislative Palace celebrates Book Day". 27 May 2015.

External links

• Official website