Argentine Senate

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Argentine Senate
Type Upper House
President of the Senate Julio Cobos, PJ Front for Victory
since 10 December 2007
Provisional President José Pampuro, PJ Front for Victory
since 2006
Majority Leader Miguel Ángel Pichetto, PJ Front for Victory
since 2006
Minority Leader Ernesto Sanz, Radical Civic Union
since
Members 72
Political groups PJ Front for Victory
Radical Civic Union
Support for an Egalitarian Republic
Civic Coalition
Plural Consensus
PJ Federalism and Freedom
Civic Front for Santiago
Civic and Social Front of Catamarca
Republican Force
San Luis Justicialists
Production and Labour
Justicialist for Dialogue with Argentines
Neuquino People's Movement
New Party
New Party Corrientes
Salta Renewal Party
Socialist Party
Last elections 28 October 2007
Meeting place Senate Chamber
Argentine Congress
Buenos Aires
Argentina
Web site http://www.senado.gov.ar
Argentina

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The Argentine Senate is the upper house of parliament in Argentina. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Senators are elected by direct election on a provincial basis, with the party with the most votes being awarded two of the province's senate seats and the second-place party receiving the third seat. Currently one-third of the members are elected every two years to a six-year term: in other words, one-third of the provinces hold senatorial elections every two years. There are no restrictions on repeated re-election.

The Senate is presided over by the Vice-President of the Republic, who has the casting vote in the event of ties.

Contents

[edit] Requirements

According to Section 55 of the Argentine Constitution, candidates for the Argentine Senate must

  • be at least 30 years old
  • have been a citizen of Argentina for six years
  • be native to the province of his office, or have been a resident of that province for two years.

[edit] Composition

See List of current members of the Argentine Senate

‡

Senate of Argentina
(as of January 2008) [1]
Party blocs Seats Party blocs Seats
PJ Front for Victory
42
 Radical Civic Union
8
Civic Coalition
2
 Support for an Egalitarian Republic
2
Civic Front for Santiago
2
 Civic and Social Front of Catamarca
2
San Luis Justicialist Party
2
 Republican Force Tucumán
2
Plural Consensus
2
 Alliance New Front
1
Neuquino People's Movement
1
 New Party Corrientes
1
PJ Federalism and Freedom
1
 Production and Labour
1
Justicialist for Dialogue with Argentines
1
 Salta Renewal Party
1
Socialist Party
1
72 members

Although there are, as of December 2007, 18 party blocks in the Senate, in reality these act as a smaller number of groupings. [2] [3]

Some of the provincial electoral fronts and the Plural Consensus of dissident radicals support the majority Front for Victory block. There is speculation that the Plural Consensus block may grow if the other FPV-supporting senators join. The Socialist Party senator and the two existing ARI senators are expected to work closely with the new Civic Coalition senators, but they have not formed a single block. There are three sets of 'dissident' Peronists, and various provincial parties, mainly of the right, who work with other blocks as occasion arises. This has left the second largest block, the Radical Civic Union, rather isolated with its eight remaining senators. [4]

[edit] Leading senators

The Senate is presided over by the Vice-President of the country, currently Julio Cobos. Day to day leadership of the Senate is conducted by the 'Provisional President', who has been Front for Victory (FPV) Senator José Pampuro since 2006.

Other positions include:

[edit] 2005 election

e•d Summary of the 23 October 2005 Argentine National Congress election results
Coalitions and parties Chamber of Deputies of the Nation:
127 out of 257 seats		 Senate of the Nation:
24 out of 72 seats
Votes % Deputies Votes % Senators
Front for Victory (Frente para la Victoria) 5,071,094 29.9 50 3,572,361 45.1 14
Radical Civic Union (Unión Cívica Radical) 1,514,653 8.9 10 597,730 7.5 2
Alternative for a Republic of Equals (Alternativa por una República de Iguales) 1,227,726 7.2 8 549,208 6.9 -
Justicialist Party (Partido Justicialista) 1,142,522 6.7 9 58,485 0.7 1
Republican Proposal (Propuesta Republicana - PRO) 1,046,020 6.2 9 492,892 6.2 -
Justicialist Front (Frente Justicialista) 670,309 3.9 7 1,364,880 17.2 3
Progressive, Civic and Social Front (Frente Progresista Cívico y Social) 625,335 3.7 5
Alliance Union of Córdoba (Alianza Unión Córdoba) 530,115 3.1 4
Federalist Unity Party (Partido Unidad Federalista) 372,843 2.2 2
Alliance New Front (Alianza Frente Nuevo) 347,412 2.0 3
Front of Everyone (Frente de Todos) 316,294 1.9 6
Front for the Renewal of Concord (Frente Renovador de la Concordia) 189,327 1.1 2 187,255 2.4 2
Civic Front for Santiago (Frente Cívico por Santiago) 185,733 1.1 3
Neuquino People's Movement (Movimiento Popular Neuquino) 85,700 0.5 2
Front of Jujuy (Frente Jujeño) 78,051 1.0 1
Alliance Front of Production and Labour (Alianza Frente Produccion y Trabajo) 71,984 0.9 1
Others 3,647,997 21.5 7 953,739 12.0 -
Total (turnout 70.9 % resp. 72.3 %) 16,973,080   127 7,926,585 24
Registered voters 26,098,546 12,081,098
Votes cast 18,513,717 8,730,094
Invalid votes 1,540,637 8.3 803,509 9.2
Source: Adam Carr's Website

Be aware that parties operate under various labels and alliances in the provinces.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links