Legislative elections 2009

As the date for legislative elections, slated for June 28 this year in Argentina, nears, here are some of the basics of the Argentine electoral system.

Legislative power is carried out by the Congress which consists of the Senate (72 seats) and the Chamber of Deputies (257 seats).

Senators are elected (by direct vote in each province) for six-year terms, a third up for reelection every two years. Each of Argentina's 23 provinces plus the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires is represented by three Senators (24 x 3 = 72). (When the vote on a particular issue is a tie, the Vice President votes.) All Senators in a given province are up for vote at the same time. In other words, in a given electoral year, a third of the provinces take part in Legislative Elections for the Senate. Each province is represented by two Senators from the winning party and one from the party in second place.

This year, the provinces participating in elections for the Senate are the following: Catamarca, Córdoba, Corrientes, Chubut, La Pampa, Mendoza, Santa Fe and Tucumán.

Members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected for a period of four years, half being up for election every two years. The vote is done through a system of proportional representation using party lists (voters vote for a list rather than a specific candidate and seats are allocated in the order of ranking on the list according to the proportion of votes won by the party).

There are currently 257 seats distributed among the provinces according to population but this number can change every ten years in accordance with census results. (The Province of Buenos Aires, for instance, currently holds 70 seats; the City of Buenos Aires, 25; and Tierra del Fuego, 5.)

A third of the candidates presented by the parties must be women.

*Information taken from Wikipedia.