Chilean Senate
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Senate of the Republic of Chile Senado de la República de Chile |
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|---|---|
Seal
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|
| Type | |
| Type | |
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Term limits
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None |
| Leadership | |
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Vice-President
|
, PPD
Since July 7, 2015 |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 38 |
 |
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Political groups
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Out of pact: |
| Elections | |
| Binomial System | |
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Last election
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November 17, 2013 |
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Next election
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November 19, 2017 |
| Meeting place | |
| Senate Chamber, National Congress Building, Valparaíso, Chile | |
| Website | |
| http://www.senado.cl | |
Out of pact:
The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile.
According to the present Constitution of Chile, the Senate is composed of thirty-eight directly elected senators, chosen by universal popular suffrage vote in 19 senatorial circumscriptions. These serve eight-year terms, with half of them being replaced every fourth year. They must be eligible to vote, have completed secondary school, or its equivalent, and be at least 35 years old.
The Senate sessions at the new (1990) National Congress located in the port city of Valparaíso that replaced the old National Congress located in downtown Santiago, the nation's capital.
Amendments to the Constitution, approved by a joint session of Congress on August 16, 2005, eliminated non-directly elected senators from March 11, 2006, the day 20 newly elected senators were sworn in, leaving the total number of senators at 38, all directly elected. Previously, according to the Constitution of 1980, "designated" or "institutional" senators were appointed to the chamber. Two former heads of state, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle and Augusto Pinochet, were installed as senators for life. Pinochet later resigned from this position and Frei lost his seat in the 2005 reform. However, Frei remained in the Senate by winning an elective seat.
The Senate of Chile was created in 1812 to support the formulations of policies of the Government Junta. Since then it has undergone several constitutional reorganizations that have altered the scope of its constitutional powers, its composition and the generation of its members.
Created by Article 7 of the Provisional Constitutional Manual of 1812. It was composed of seven titular members (one for each province) and three alternate members and was supposed to serve as a counterbalance to the executive power of the Government Junta. The senators were directly nominated by the provinces in agreement with the central government. It functioned from November, 1812 to January, 1814, when it was reorganized to better respond to the problems caused by the successive military defeats at the hands of the advancing Spanish Army.
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Wikipedia