Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Chamber of Deputies of the Nation Cámara de Diputados de la Nación
2019–2021 period
Type
Type	Lower house of the National Congress of Argentina
Term limits	None
Leadership
President	Sergio Massa, FdT since 10 December 2019
1st Vice President	Omar De Marchi, PRO - JxC since 09 December 2020
First Minority Leader	Máximo Kirchner, FdT since 10 December 2019
Second Minority Leader	Mario Negri, UCR - JxC since 10 December 2019
Structure
Seats	257 (List)
Political groups	Government (120)   Frente de Todos Opposition (137)   Juntos por el Cambio (115)   Federal Consensus (10)   Federal Unity for Development (6)   Federal Action (2)   IS–Left Front (2)   Party for Social Justice (1)   Neuquén People's Movement (1)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation D'Hondt method
Last election	27 October 2019 (130 seats)
Next election	14 November 2021 (127 seats)
Meeting place
Chamber of Deputies, Congress Palace, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Website
hcdn.gob.ar

Coordinates: 34°36′34.75″S 58°23′33.29″W / 34.6096528°S 58.3925806°W / -34.6096528; -58.3925806

The Chamber of Deputies (Spanish: Cámara de Diputados de la Nación) is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress (Spanish: Congreso de la Nación). It is made up of 257 national deputies who are elected in multi-member constituencies corresponding with the territories of the 23 provinces of Argentina (plus the Federal Capital) by party list proportional representation. Elections to the Chamber are held every two years, so that half of its members are up in each election, making it a rare example of staggered elections used in a lower house.

The Constitution of Argentina lays out certain attributions that are unique to the Chamber of Deputies. The Chamber holds exclusive rights to levy taxes; to draft troops; and to accuse the President, cabinet ministers, and members of the Supreme Court before the Senate. Additionally, the Chamber of Deputies receives for consideration bills presented by popular initiative.

The Chamber of Deputies is presided over by the President of the Chamber (Spanish: Presidente de la Cámara), who is deputized by three Vice Presidents.

Current composition[]

It has 257 seats and one-half of the members are elected every two years to serve four-year terms by the people of each district (23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires) using proportional representation, D'Hondt formula with a 3% of the district registered voters threshold, and the following distribution:

By province[]

By political groups[]

All data from official website.^[1]

Requirements[]

In order for an Argentine citizen to be elected to congress, they have to fulfill certain requirements: He or she has to be at least twenty five years old with at least four years of active citizenship and it has to be naturalized in the province that is being elected to or at least have two years of immediate residency in said province, according to art. 48 of the Argentine Constitution.

History[]

The Chamber of Deputies was provided for in the Constitution of Argentina, ratified on May 1, 1853. Eligibility requisites are that members be at least twenty-five years old, and have been a resident of the province they represent for at least two years; as congressional seats are elected at-large, members nominally represent their province, rather than a district.^[2]

Otherwise patterned after Article One of the United States Constitution per legal scholar Juan Bautista Alberdi's treatise, Bases de la Constitución Argentina, the chamber was originally apportioned in one seat per 33,000 inhabitants. The constitution made no provision for a national census, however, and because the Argentine population doubled every twenty years from 1870 to 1930 as a result of immigration (disproportionately benefiting Buenos Aires and the Pampas area provinces), censuses were conducted generationally, rather than every decade, until 1947.^[3]

Apportionment controversy[]

The distribution of the Chamber of Deputies is regulated since 1982 by Law 22.847, also called Ley Bignone, enacted by the last Argentine dictator, General Reynaldo Bignone, ahead of the 1983 general elections. This law established that, initially, each province shall have one deputy per 161,000 inhabitants, with standard rounding; after this is calculated, each province is granted three more deputies. If a province has fewer than five deputies, the number of deputies for that province is increased to reach that minimum.

Controversially, apportionment remains based on the 1980 population census, and has not been modified since 1983; national censuses since then have been conducted in 1991, 2001, and 2010. The minimum of five seat per province allots the smaller ones a disproportionately large representation, as well. Accordingly, this distribution does not reflect Argentina's current population balance.

Presidents of the Chamber[]

The President of the Chamber is elected by the majority caucus. The officeholders for this post since 1983 have been:

President	Party		Term start	Term end	Province
Juan Carlos Pugliese		UCR	29 November 1983	3 April 1989	Buenos Aires Province
Leopoldo Moreau		UCR	26 April 1989	6 July 1989	Buenos Aires Province
		PJ	6 July 1989	1 December 1999	Buenos Aires Province
		UCR	1 December 1999	5 December 2001	City of Buenos Aires
Eduardo Camaño		PJ	5 December 2001	6 December 2005	Buenos Aires Province
Alberto Balestrini		PJ–FPV	6 December 2005	12 December 2007	Buenos Aires Province
Eduardo Fellner		PJ–FPV	12 December 2007	6 December 2011	Jujuy
Julián Domínguez		PJ–FPV	6 December 2011	4 December 2015	Buenos Aires Province
Emilio Monzó		PRO–C	4 December 2015	10 December 2019	Buenos Aires Province
Sergio Massa		FDT	10 December 2019	incumbent	Buenos Aires Province

Current authorities[]

Leadership positions include:

Title	Officeholder	Party	Province
Chamber President	Sergio Massa	Everybody's Front	Buenos Aires Province
First Vice-President	Omar De Marchi	PRO-Together for Change	Mendoza
Second Vice-President	José Luis Gioja	Everybody's Front	San Juan
Third Vice-President	Alfredo Cornejo	UCR-Together for Change	Mendoza
Parliamentary Secretary	Eduardo Cergnul
Administrative Secretary	Rodrigo Rodríguez
Coordinating Secretary

See also[]

• Argentine Senate
• Politics of Argentina
• List of legislatures by country

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parliaments of Argentina.

• Official website