House of Representatives (Colombia)
|
House of Representatives Cámara de Representantes |
|
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | |
| Type |
Lower house of the Congress of Colombia
|
| Leadership | |
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President of the House
|
Miguel Ángel Pinto (Liberal)
Since 20 July 2016 |
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First Vice President
|
Alejandro Carlos Chacón (Liberal)
Since 20 July 2016 |
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Second Vice President
|
Jaime Armando Yepes (Conservative)
Since 20 July 2016 |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 166 |
 |
|
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Political groups
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Government (98) Opposition (22) Independent (46) |
| Elections | |
| Proportional representation | |
|
Last election
|
9 March 2014 |
|
Next election
|
11 March 2018 |
| Meeting place | |
| Capitolio Nacional, Bogotá | |
| Website | |
| camara.gov.co | |
Government (98)
Opposition (22)
Independent (46)
The House of Representatives (Spanish: Cámara de Representantes) is the lower house of the Congress of Colombia.
The House of Representatives has 166 members elected for four-year terms.
According to the Colombian Constitution, the House of Representatives, currently composed of 166 representatives serving four-year terms, is elected in territorial constituencies, special constituencies and an international constituency.
Each department (and the capital district of Bogotá D.C.) form territorial electoral constituencies (circunscripciones territoriales). Each constituency has at least two members, and one more for every 365,000 inhabitants or fraction greater than 182,500 over and above the initial 365,000. For the current legislative term (2014-2018), 161 of the House's 166 members are elected in territorial constituencies.
There are also three special constituencies, electing the remaining five members: one for Indigenous communities currently with one representative, one for Afro-Colombian communities (negritudes) currently with two representatives and one for Colombian citizens resident abroad currently with one representative. As a result of the 2015 constitutional reform, the number of seats allocated to Colombian citizens resident abroad will be reduced to one, from 2018 onward, as an additional special seat will be created for the territorial constituency of Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina to represent the archipelago's Raizal community.
Since 2014, the assignment of additional seats is based on the corresponding proportional increase of the national population in accordance with census results. If as a result of the above a territorial constituency should lose one or more seats, it keeps the number of seats to which it was entitled to on July 20, 2002.
For elections to the House, political parties or other movements and groups run single lists, with a number of candidates not exceeding the total number of seats to be filled, although in constituencies with only two seats, party lists may include a third name. The current threshold for parties to win seats in a territorial constituency is 50% of the electoral quotient (total votes divided by total seats) in constituencies returning more than two members, and 30% of the electoral quotient in constituencies returning two members. Seats are then distributed using the distributing number, or cifra repartidora. This number is obtained by successively dividing the number of votes received by each list by one, two, three and so forth, and placing the results in descending order until the total number of results equal to the number of seats to be filled. The lowest resulting number is called the distributing number (cifra repartidora). Each list shall obtain the number of seats that corresponds to the number of times the distributing number is contained in the total number of its votes.
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