Congress of Peru

The Congress of the Republic ( _es. Congreso de la República) is the name given to Peru's unicameral legislature under the current (1993) constitution.

Congress consists of 120 members of congress "(congresistas)," who are elected for five year periods in office on a proportional representation basis. To be eligible, candidates must be Peruvian citizens, have passed their 25th birthday, and not have had their right to vote suspended. The last congressional election was held on April 9 2006, concurrently with the presidential election.

Historical

Under its 1980 constitution (adopted in 1979 and abrogated in 1993), Peru had a bicameral Congress, made up of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. The Senate had 60 members; the Chamber, 180. Members of both chambers were elected for five-year terms, running concurrently with that of the president. Party-list proportional representation was used for both chambers: on a regional basis for the Senate, and using the D'Hondt method for the lower house. Members of both houses had to be Peruvian citizens, with a minimum age of 25 for deputies and 35 for senators.

Following the auto-coup of 1992, in which Congress was dissolved, the Democratic Constitutional Congress established a single chamber of 120 members.

Composition of the Peruvian Congress

Peruvian Congress of 1995-2000

On July 27 1995 a new unicameral Congress was created with the following distrubition by political party:

*Change 90-New Majority (Alberto Fujimori): 74 seats.
*Independents: 16 seats.
*Union for Peru (Javier Pérez de Cuéllar): 8 seats.
*Christian People's Party (Luis Bedoya Reyes): 7 seats.
*Peruvian Aprista Party (Jorge Del Castillo): 7 seats.
*Popular Action (Fernando Belaúnde): 6 seats.
*Democracy in Action: 6 seats.

Peruvian Congress of 2000-2001

On July 27, 2000 the Congress of the Republic was established. This Congressional period was marked with various episodes of members of Congress switching their party affiliation. The following distribution marks seats by party at the end of the 2000-2001 term:

*Peru Possible (Alejandro Toledo): 21 seats.
*Let's Go Neighbor (Alberto Fujimori): 18 seats.
*Peru 2000 (Alberto Fujimori): 18 seats.
*Sin agrupación: 16 seats.
*No Agrupados: 11 congresistas.
*Parliamentary Independent Group: 10 congresistas.
*Independent Moralizing Front (Fernando Olivera): 7 seats.
*With Force Peru (Pedro Koechlin): 7 seats.
*Democratic Parliamentary Group: 6 seats.
*Popular Action-Union for Peru (Fernando Belaúnde and José Vega): 6 seats.

Peruvian Congress of 2001-2006

On July 21, 2001 a new Congress of the Peruvian Republic was established the following is a distribution of Congress members by political party affiliation:

*Peru Possible (Alejandro Toledo): 35 seats
*Peruvian Aprista Party (Alan García): 28 seats
*National Unity (Lourdes Flores): 12 seats
*Independent Moralizing Front (Fernando Olivera): 7 seats
*Peru Now (Luis Guerrero): 6 seats
*Other parties: 27 seats

Peruvian Congress of 2006-2011

A new Peruvian Congress of the Republic was established in July 2006 with the following distribution:

*Union for Peru (Ollanta Humala): 45 seats.
*Peruvian Aprista Party (Alan García): 36 seats.
*National Unity (Peru) (Lourdes Flores): 17 seats.
*Alliance for the Future (Martha Chávez): 13 seats.
*Center Front (Valentín Paniagua): 5 seats.
*Peru Possible (Alejandro Toledo): 2 seats.
*National Restoration (Humberto Lay): 2 seats.

Presidents of Congress

* ¹ "Luz Salgado temporarily assumed the position of President of Congress after a motion to censure President Hildebrandt."
* ² "Valentìn Paniagua, was elected President of Congress and as such simultaneously served as President of the Transitional Government."
* ³ "Carlos Ferrero Costa, was assigned to President of Congress by an agreement between different political parties."

External links

* [http://www.congreso.gob.pe/ Official Peruvian Congress Site]
* [http://www.congreso.gob.pe/organizacion/pleno.asp?mode=Pleno List of all Members of Congress]