Argentina held national parliamentary elections on Sunday, 23 October 2005. For the purpose of these elections, each of the 23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires are considered electoral districts.
Each district elected a number of members of the Lower House (the Argentine Chamber of Deputies) roughly proportional to their population. Eight districts (Buenos Aires, Formosa, Jujuy, La Rioja, Misiones, San Juan, San Luis, and Santa Cruz) also elected members to the Upper House of Congress (the Argentine Senate); as usual, three senators were elected (two for the majority, one for the first minority).
In most provinces, the national elections were conducted in parallel with local ones, whereby a number of municipalities elected legislative officials (concejales) and in some cases also a mayor (or the equivalent executive post). Each provincial election followed local regulations.
A number of districts had held primary elections beforehand. In most cases, primary elections are optional and can be called for by the local political parties as needed; in Santa Fe, however, the primaries were universal and compulsory due to a recent law that repealed the much-criticized Ley de Lemas. Turnout continued to decline, and reached 70.9% in these elections.
The main parties and coalitions competing in these elections were: