Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Argentine Chamber of Deputies Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Nación
Type
Type	Lower House
Leadership
President of the Chamber	Julián Domínguez,  PJ - FPV Since 6 Dec 2011
1st Vice President of the Chamber	Norma Abdala de Matarazzo,  Civic Front for Santiago Since 10 Dec 2010
Majority Leader	Juliana Di Tullio,  PJ - FPV Since May 2013
Minority Leader	Mario Negri,  UCR Since 10 Dec 2013
Structure
Seats	257 (List)
Political groups	Government coalition      PJ-FpV (133) Opposition parties      FAUNEN (61)      PJ-PF (37)      PRO (20)      FIT (6)
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation D'Hondt method
Last election	27 October 2013
Meeting place
Chamber of Deputies, Argentine Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Website
http://www.diputados.gov.ar

The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This 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.

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:

Province	Total deputies
Buenos Aires Autonomous City	25
Buenos Aires Province	70
Catamarca Province	5
Chaco Province	7
Chubut Province	5
Córdoba Province	18
Corrientes Province	7
Entre Ríos Province	9
Formosa Province	5
Jujuy Province	6
La Pampa Province	5
La Rioja Province	5
Mendoza Province	10
Misiones Province	7
Neuquén Province	5
Río Negro Province	5
Salta Province	7
San Juan Province	6
San Luis Province	5
Santa Cruz Province	5
Santa Fe Province	19
Santiago del Estero Province	7
Tucumán Province	9
Tierra del Fuego Province	5
Total	257

Requirements

In order for an Argentine citizen to be elected to congress, it has to fulfil 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 or 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 four years; as congressional seats are elected at-large, members nominally represent their province, rather than a district.

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.

Apportionment controversy

The distribution of the Chamber of Deputies is regulated since 1983 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

See also: List of Presidents of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies

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

Term began	Term ended	Officeholder	Party	Province
December 10, 1983	April 3, 1989	Juan Carlos Pugliese	UCR	Buenos Aires Province
April 3, 1989	July 8, 1989	Leopoldo Moreau	UCR	Buenos Aires Province
July 8, 1989	December 10, 1999	Alberto Pierri	PJ	Buenos Aires Province
December 10, 1999	December 10, 2001	Rafael Pascual	UCR	City of Buenos Aires
December 10, 2001	December 10, 2005	Eduardo Camaño	PJ	Buenos Aires Province
December 10, 2005	December 10, 2007	Alberto Balestrini	FPV - PJ	Buenos Aires Province
December 10, 2007	December 6, 2011	Eduardo Fellner	FPV - PJ	Jujuy
December 6, 2011	to date	Julián Domínguez	FPV - PJ	Buenos Aires Province

Current authorities

Leadership positions include:

Title	Officeholder	Party	Province
Chamber President	Julián Domínguez	FPV	Buenos Aires Province
First Vice-President	Norma Abdala de Matarazzo	Civic Front for Santiago	Santiago del Estero
Second Vice-President	Mario Negri	UCR	Córdoba
Third Vice-President	Alicia Ciciliani	Socialist	Santa Fe
Parliamentary Secretary	Gervasio Bozzano
Administrative Secretary	José Gaincerain
Coordinating Secretary	Ricardo Patterson

Composition by Party blocks

Further information: List of current Argentine deputies § Party alignments (as of June 2011)

 Argentine Chamber of Deputies: Composition, 2011-2013

Political Party	Seats	Net Change in seats	% of Votes	Caucus leader
Front for Victory	115	28	50.8	Juliana Di Tullio
Radical Civic Union	38	5	13.5	Ricardo Gil Lavedra
Federal Peronism	23	6	10.5	Enrique Thomas
Republican Proposal	11	=	2.2	Federico Pinedo
Civic Front for Santiago (allied with Front for Victory)	7	=	1.4	Daniel Brue
Civic Coalition	6	13	3.0	Alfonso Prat Gay
Socialist Party (Progressive Ample Front)	6	=	13.6*	Juan Zabalza
New Encounter (allied with Front for Victory)	5	=	n.a.	Martín Sabbatella
Generation for a National Encounter (Progressive Ample Front)	5	=	*	Margarita Stolbizer
Córdoba Civic Front (allied with Civic Coalition)	5	2	0.2	Ernesto Martínez
Popular Unity (Progressive Ample Front)	5	4	*	Claudio Lozano
Neuquén People's Movement	3	=	0.3	Alicia Comelli
Project South	3	1	0.2	Fernando Solanas
Peronist Union	3	3	n.a.	Felipe Solá
Others (18 parties)	22	4	4.3
Total	257

* Total includes all parties in FAP, led by the Socialist Party.

2009 election

See List of current Argentine Deputies and Argentine legislative election, 2009

 Argentine Chamber of Deputies: Composition, 2009-2011

Political Party	Seats	Net Change in seats	% of Votes	Caucus leader
Front for Victory	87	-20	26.7	Agustín Rossi
Radical Civic Union	43	+14	9.0	Oscar Aguad
Federal Peronism	29	+25	8.7	Felipe Solá
Civic Coalition	19	+4	18.1	Elisa Carrió
Republican Proposal	11	+3	18.5	Federico Pinedo
Civic Front for Santiago (allied with Front for Victory)	7	+1	1.0	Daniel Brue
Socialist Party	6	-4	0.8	Mónica Fein
Peronist Party	6	-2	0.7	~
New Popular and Solidary Encounter	5	+5	2.1	Martín Sabbatella
Generation for a National Encounter	5	+3	2.0	Margarita Stolbizer
Project South	4	+3	2.3	Fernando Solanas
Córdoba Civic Front (allied with Civic Coalition)	3	+3	2.4	Ernesto Martínez
Neuquén People's Movement	3	0	0.4	Alicia Comelli
Solidarity and Equality	3	-4	0.5	Eduardo Macaluse
Others (21 parties)	26	-31	6.8
Total	254

2007 election

See Argentine general election, 2007

References

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

External links

• Chamber of Deputies Argentina - Official Site