Senate of Chile

Senate of Chile Senado de la República de Chile
Type
Type	Upper House
Leadership
President of the Senate	Guido Girardi, PPD since March 15, 2011
Vice-President of the Senate	Juan Pablo Letelier, PS since March 15, 2011
Members	38
Political groups	Concertación Coalition for Change
Elections
Last election	December 13, 2009
Meeting place
Senate Chamber National Congress of Chile Valparaíso Chile
Website
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.

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 Santiago, the nation's capital.

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 remained in the Senate by winning an elective seat.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Political composition (2006-2010)

Affiliation Members  % Coalition for Change (coalition) 17 44.74     Independent Democrat Union 9 23.68     National Renewal 7 18.42     ChileFirst 1 2.63 Concertación (coalition) 15 39.47     Socialist Party 6 15.79     Christian Democrat Party 5 13.16     Social Democrat Radical Party 3 7.89     Party for Democracy 1 2.63 Parties not in coalition 2 5.26     Broad Social Movement 1 2.63     Regionalist Party of the Independent 1 2.63 Independent senators 4 10.53 Total 38 100.00

Current Senate composition                                                                               Color Key:   = Coalition for Change   = Concertación   = MAS   = PRI   = Independent

Senators (2006-2010)

Senate composition from March 11, 2006 to March 11, 2010.

Constituency	Region	Name	Party	Last elected
1	Arica and Parinacota Tarapacá	Fernando Flores Labra	CH1[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-March 13, 2009)	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)	Ind.[3]	2001
		Sergio Romero Pizarro	RN	2001
6		Nelson Ávila Contreras	PRSD[4]	2001
		Jorge Arancibia Reyes	UDI	2001
7	Santiago	Guido Girardi Lavín	PPD	2005
		Jovino Novoa Vásquez (President, March 13, 2009–present)	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	Biobío	Alejandro Navarro Brain	MAS[5]	2005
		Hosain Sabag Castillo	PDC	2005
13		Mariano Ruiz-Esquide Jara	PDC	2005
		Víctor Pérez Varela	UDI	2005
14	Araucanía	Roberto Muñoz Barra	Ind.[6]	2001
		Alberto Espina Otero	RN	2001
15		Guillermo Vásquez Úbeda	PRSD[7]	2005
		José García Ruminot	RN	2001
16	Los Ríos (plus District 55)	Andrés Allamand Zavala	RN	2005
		Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (President, March 11, 2006-March 12, 2008)	PDC	2005
17	Los Lagos (minus District 55)	Camilo Escalona Medina	PS	2005
		Carlos Kuschel Silva	RN	2005
18	Aisén	Adolfo Zaldívar Larraín (President, March 12, 2008-March 13, 2009)	PRI[8]	2001
		Antonio Horvath Kiss	RN	2001
19	Magallanes	Carlos Bianchi Chelech (Vice-President, March 13, 2009–present)	Ind.	2005
		Pedro Muñoz Aburto	PS	2005

See also

• President of the Senate of Chile
• National Congress of Chile
• Chamber of Deputies of Chile

Notes

1. ^ Elected as a PPD member, but quit the party in January 2007, after corruption scandals. He is currently the leader of ChileFirst.
2. ^ Elected as RN member, but quit the party in November 2007, after conflicts with the party leadership.
3. ^ Elected as a PS member, but quit the party in June 2009 to seek reelection as independent in the 2009 election.
4. ^ Elected as a PPD member, but quit the party in March 2003. He joined the PRSD in March 2005.
5. ^ Elected as a PS member, but quit the party in November 2008 to form his own political party, Broad Social Movement (MAS). He has pledged he will remain loyal to President Michelle Bachelet.
6. ^ Elected as a PPD member, but left the party in July 2009.
7. ^ He replaced Jorge Lavandero (PDC), who was accused of child abuse.
8. ^ 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. He joined the PRI in July 2009.

External links

• Senate of Chile Official web site
• Article from the Economist dealing with the Senate composition