Senate of Chile

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Senado de la República de Chile
Type Upper House
President of the Senate Adolfo Zaldívar, Independent
since March 12, 2008
Vice-President of the Senate Baldo Prokurica, National Renewal
since March 12, 2008
Members 38
Political groups Concert of Parties for Democracy
Alliance for Chile
Last elections December 10, 2005
Meeting place Senate Chamber
National Congress of Chile
Valparaíso
Chile
Web site http://www.senado.cl
Chile

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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.

Contents

[edit] Composition

According to the present Constitution of Chile, the Senate is composed of thirty-eight directly elected senators, chosen by universal popular suffrage vote in 19 senatorial circumscriptions. These serve eight-year terms, with half of them being replaced every fourth year. They must be eligible to vote, have completed secondary school, or its equivalent, and be at least 35 years old.

The Senate sessions at the new (1990) National Congress located in the port city of Valparaíso, which replaced the old National Congress located in downtown of capital Santiago.

[edit] Abolition of the unelected

Amendments to the Constitution, approved by a joint session of Congress on August 16, 2005, eliminated non-directly elected senators from March 11, 2006, the day 20 newly-elected senators were sworn in, leaving the total number of senators at 38, all directly elected. Previously, according to the Constitution of 1980, "designated" or "institutional" senators were appointed to the chamber. Two former heads of state, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle and Augusto Pinochet, were installed as senators for life. Pinochet later resigned from this position and Frei lost his seat in the 2005 reform. However, Frei later won an elective seat and is the current Senate President.

[edit] Historical evolution

The Senate of Chile was created in 1812 to support the formulations of policies of the Government Junta. Since then it has undergone several constitutional reorganizations that have altered the scope of its constitutional powers, its composition and the generation of its members.

[edit] First senate

Created by Article 7 of the Provisional Constitutional Manual of 1812. It was composed of seven titular members (one for each province) and three alternate members and was supposed to serve as a counter-balance to the executive power of the Government Junta. The senators were directly nominated by the provinces in agreement with the central government. It functioned from November, 1812 to January, 1814, when it was reorganized to better respond to the problems caused by the successive military defeats at the hands of the advancing Spanish Army.

[edit] Consultive senate

Created by Article 13 of the Provisional Government Manual of 1814. As its predecessor, it was composed of seven titular members (only) nominated by the provinces in lists of three from which they were selected by the Supreme Director. It functioned from March to July, 1814, when the Spanish Army captured Santiago, putting an end to the Patria Vieja government.

[edit] First conservative senate

Created by Title III of the Constitution of 1818. It was composed of five titular members and five alternate members selected directly by the Supreme Director. It was supposed to function only when the lower house was not in function or could not meet, and had the power to enact "provisory rules" that had the same effect as laws (hence the "conservative" moniker, because it "conserved" the power.) It functioned from October, 1818 to May, 1822.

[edit] Current political composition

Affiliation Members  %
Concertación (coalition) 18 47.37
Socialist Party 8 21.05
Christian Democrat Party 5 13.16
Social Democrat Radical Party 3 7.89
Party for Democracy 2 5.26
Alianza (coalition) 16 42.11
Independent Democrat Union 9 23.68
National Renewal 7 18.42
Independent 4 10.53
Total 38 100.00
Current Senate composition
                   
                   
                   
                 
Color Key:   = Concertación   = Alianza   = Independent

[edit] Current senators

Senate composition from March 11, 2006.

Constituency Region Name Party Last elected
1 Arica and Parinacota
Tarapacá		 Fernando Flores Labra Ind.[1] 2001
Jaime Orpis Bouchon UDI 2001
2 Antofagasta Carlos Cantero Ojeda Ind.[2] 2005
José Antonio Gómez Urrutia PRSD 2005
3 Atacama Ricardo Núñez Muñoz PS 2001
Baldo Prokurica Prokurica
(Vice-President, March 12, 2008-present)		 RN 2001
4 Coquimbo Evelyn Matthei Fornet UDI 2005
Jorge Pizarro Soto PDC 2005
5 Valparaíso Carlos Ominami Pascual
(Vice-President, March 11, 2006-March 12, 2008)		 PS 2001
Sergio Romero Pizarro RN 2001
6 Nelson Ávila Contreras PRSD 2001
Jorge Arancibia Reyes UDI 2001
7 Santiago Guido Girardi Lavín PPD 2005
Jovino Novoa Vásquez UDI 2005
8 Pablo Longueira Montes UDI 2005
Soledad Alvear Valenzuela PDC 2005
9 O'Higgins Andrés Chadwick Piñera UDI 2005
Juan Pablo Letelier Morel PS 2005
10 Maule Jaime Gazmuri Mujica PS 2001
Juan Antonio Coloma Correa UDI 2001
11 Jaime Naranjo Ortiz PS 2001
Hernán Larraín Fernández UDI 2001
12 Bío-Bío Alejandro Navarro Brain PS 2005
Hosain Sabag Castillo PDC 2005
13 Mariano Ruiz-Esquide Jara PDC 2005
Víctor Pérez Varela UDI 2005
14 Araucanía Roberto Muñoz Barra PPD 2001
Alberto Espina Otero RN 2001
15 Guillermo Vásquez Úbeda PRSD 2001
José García Ruminot RN 2001
16 Los Ríos Andrés Allamand Zavala RN 2005
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle
(President, March 11, 2006-March 12, 2008)		 PDC 2005
17 Los Lagos Camilo Escalona Medina PS 2005
Carlos Kuschel Silva RN 2005
18 Aisén Adolfo Zaldívar Larraín
(President, March 12, 2008-present)		 Ind.[3] 2001
Antonio Horvath Kiss RN 2001
19 Magallanes Carlos Bianchi Chelech Ind. 2005
Pedro Muñoz Aburto PS 2005

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Elected as a PPD member, but quit the party in January 2007, after corruption scandals. He is currently the leader of ChilePrimero, a party awaiting legalization by the Electoral Service.
  2. ^ Elected as RN member, but quit the party in November 2007, after conflicts with the party leadership.
  3. ^ Elected as a PDC member, but was expelled in December 2007, after voting against party wishes on some critical legislation and for criticizing the party leadership.

[edit] External links

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