National Congress of Chile Congreso Nacional de Chile | |
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LVI legislative period | |
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Type | |
Type | |
Houses | Senate Chamber of Deputies |
History | |
Founded | July 4, 1811 (First National Congress) |
Leadership | |
Structure | |
Seats | Total: 205 50 senators 155 deputies |
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Senate political groups | Government (18) External support (5)
Opposition (27)
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Chamber of Deputies political groups | Government (67)
External support (7) Opposition (81)
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Length of term |
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Meeting place | |
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Edificio del Congreso Nacional Valparaíso Chile | |
Website | |
Cámara de Diputados (in Spanish) Senado (in Spanish) |
The National Congress of Chile [1] (Spanish : Congreso Nacional de Chile) is the legislative branch of the Republic of Chile. According to the current Constitution (Chilean Constitution of 1980), it is a bicameral organ made up of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. Established by law No. 18678, [2] the city of Valparaíso is its official headquarters.
Chile's congress is the oldest operational in Latin America and one of the oldest in Ibero-America. The First Chilean National Congress was founded on July 4, 1811, to decide the best kind of government for the Kingdom of Chile during the captivity of King Ferdinand VII in the hands of Napoleon.
The Chamber of Deputies is constituted by 155 members called deputies or diputados in Spanish and they are elected for a four-years period. Re-election is possible for a maximum of two times, which means that the deputy may remain in the post for up to 12 years. [3] The country has 60 electoral districts and each one is represented by two deputies.
The Senate is formed by 50 senators elected for an eight-years period and may go for re-election one time, which means a senator can remain in the role for 16 years. [3] The electoral division is different from the deputies, it is made of 19 senatorial constituencies (Spanish:circunscripción senatorial), where two senators are elected per constituency.
The Congress's powers, duties and processes are defined in articles 42 to 59 of the current constitution of 1980 and through the Constitutional Organic Law No. 18918 [4] published in 1990.
The current electoral system (or voting system) in Chile is proportional and inclusive according to the 2015 update of the organic law No. 18700, article 179 bis. [5]
The National Congress was closed without an immediate renewal of the members of its two chambers during three periods: 1924-1925, June-October 1932 and 1973-1989.
A new four-years legislative period begins with the installation of the National Congress. The LVI legislative period of the Chilean Congress began on March 11, 2022 and will end in 2026.
On 13 September 1973, the Government Junta of Chile dissolved Congress. [6]
During the last years of the Pinochet regime, the current building of Congress was built in the port city of Valparaíso, some 140 km west of the country's capital, Santiago. This new building replaced the Former National Congress Building, located in downtown Santiago.
Between 1989 and 2013, elections in Chile were carried out following a binomial voting system, which was prescribed in 1980 during the Military dictatorship of Chile.
The binomial system was considered by most analysts as the main constitutional lock that prevented completion of the Chilean transition to democracy.
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The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile.
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of Chile's bicameral Congress. Its organisation and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of Chile's current constitution.
Elections in Chile are held nationwide, including the presidency, parliament, regional offices, and municipal positions. Chilean citizens and foreign residents with legal residency of at least five years, who are 18 years or older on election day, are eligible to vote. Previously, voting was voluntary, but since 2023, it has become compulsory.
La Florida is an urban-suburban commune of Chile located in the South East of Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region. It is a residential area and its inhabitants are mostly members of a new middle to upper-middle class. It ranks number 12 out of 346 among Chilean communes in terms of Human Development Index. Its mayor is Rodolfo Carter.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Chile since 10 March 2022. The path to legalization began in June 2021 when President Sebastián Piñera announced his administration's intention to sponsor a bill for this cause. The Chilean Senate passed the legislation on 21 July 2021, followed by the Chamber of Deputies on 23 November 2021. Due to disagreements between the two chambers of the National Congress on certain aspects of the bill, a mixed commission was formed to resolve these issues. A unified version of the bill was approved on 7 December 2021. President Piñera signed it into law on 9 December, and it was published in the country's official gazette on 10 December. The law took effect 90 days later, and the first same-sex marriages occurred on 10 March 2022. Chile thus became the sixth country in South America and the 29th in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
The president of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile is the highest authority of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile. The office was established in 1811 by the First National Congress of Chile.
Gorbea is a Chilean city and commune located in Cautín Province, Araucanía Region.
Guido Girardi Lavín is a Chilean doctor and politician. He was a senator in district no. 7 for Santiago Poniente. He previously served as the president of that chamber.
Jorge Hübner was a Chilean lawyer, professor and politician.
The Liberal Party was a Chilean centrist political party existing between 1988 and 1994.
Marco Antonio Núñez Lozano is a Chilean politician. He was President of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile between 17 March 2015 and 22 March 2016. Núñez is member of the Party for Democracy and was a member of the Chamber of Deputies between 2006 and 2018.
The Library of the National Congress of Chile is a service of the National Congress of Chile that serves as an information center for the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The library advises parliamentarians in the social sciences, law, legislation, history, and the development of Chile.
Emilia Iris Nuyado Ancapichún is a Chilean politician of Mapuche-Huillliche descent. Since March 11, 2018 she has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies representing the 25th district in the Los Lagos Region. She also became one of the first two Mapuche women elected to the Chilean Congress, together with her conservative counterpart Aracely Leuquén.
Hugo Eugenio Ballesteros Reyes was a Chilean politician and diplomat.
Women's suffrage in Chile was introduced on the communal level in 1935, and on national level on 8 January 1949. It was the product of a long period of activism, tracing back to 1877, when women were allowed to attend university, a reform which stimulated the formation of a women's movement. The women's suffrage was a reform which was actively promoted since the 1920s by the organizations Consejo Nacional de Mujeres de Chile Comité Nacional pro Derechos de la Mujer, Pro-Emancipation Movement of Chilean Women and Federación Chilena de Instituciones Femeninas (FECHIF).
Álvaro José Miguel Covarrubias Ortúzar was a Chilean politician and lawyer who served as President of the Senate of Chile. He also stood as an independent candidate in the Chilean presidential elections in 1871, 1876, 1881 and 1886.
Rojo Edwards Silva is a Chilean politician and civil engineer serving as senator for the Santiago Metropolitan Region. A member of the Christian Social Party, he previously served in the Chamber of Deputies.
Aracely Andrea Leuquén Uribe is a Chilean politician. She is a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile from the National Renewal Party. A traditionalist conservative, she opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. When she took office on March 11, 2018, she became one of the first two Mapuche women elected to the Chilean Congress, together with her Socialist counterpart Emilia Nuyado. She did not run for re-election in 2021.
Gaspar Alberto Rivas Sánchez is a Chilean lawyer and politician. Since March 2022, he has been a deputy of the Republic representing District 6 of the Valparaíso Region. He was a member of the Party of the People from 2021 to 2024.
Jovino Novoa Vidal was a Chilean lawyer, diplomat and liberal politician. He served several times as a parliamentarian, in addition to having been mayor of the province of Valparaíso from 1858 to 1860 and, then Minister of Finance between 1859 and 1861, both during the administration of President Manuel Montt. During the War of the Pacific (1879), he served as minister plenipotentiary in Lima, for which he signed the Treaty of Ancón, remaining in office until 1886. Simultaneously he functioned as ambassador of Chile to the Kingdom of Spain, signing the 1883 Chilean–Spanish Treaty, which put an end to the state of war between both nations in force since the Spanish–South American War (1864-1866).