Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Argentine Chamber of Deputies Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Nación
Type
Type	Lower House
Leadership
President of the Chamber	Eduardo Fellner, PJ - FPV since 10 Dec 2007
1st Vice-President of the Chamber	Oscar Aguad, UCR since 10 Dec 2010
Majority Leader	Agustín Rossi, PJ - FPV since 10 Dec 2007
Minority Leader	Ricardo Gil Lavedra, UCR since 10 Dec 2010
Members	257 (List)
Political groups	PJ - FPV UCR PJ Federal Peronism CC-ARI PRO Civic Front for Santiago Socialist Party GEN Proyecto Sur New Encounter MPN Córdoba Civic Front SI PJ Federal Peronist Movement Concertation Party Federal Córdoba Civic and Social Front of Catamarca Free of the South Movement PJ of La Pampa Federal Consensus FORJA PJ of Jujuy Salta Renewal Party Democratic Party of Mendoza Democratic Progressive Party Dialogue for Buenos Aires Federal Party of Tierra del Fuego Liberal Party of Corrientes We Are All Salta Values for My Country Front for Everyone PJ Federal Peronist Front [1]
Elections
Last election	28 June 2009
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 create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the 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:

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

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.^[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 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 establishes 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:

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	PJ	Buenos Aires Province
December 10, 2007	to date	Eduardo Fellner	FPV - PJ	Jujuy

Current authorities

Leadership positions include:

Title	Officeholder	Party	Province
Chamber President	Eduardo Fellner	FPV	Jujuy
First Vice-President	Oscar Aguad	UCR	Córdoba
Second Vice-President	Patricia Fadel	FPV	Mendoza
Third Vice-President	Ramón Puerta	Federal Peronism	Misiones
Parliamentary Secretary	Enrique Hidalgo
Administrative Secretary	Ricardo Vázquez
Coordinating Secretary	Jorge Ocampos

Composition by Party blocks

Further information: List_of_current_Argentine_deputies#Party alignments (as of June 2011)

Chamber of Deputies of Argentina* (as of March 10, 2010)
Party blocs*	Seats	Party blocs	Seats
PJ - Front for Victory (FPV)	87	Radical Civic Union (UCR)	43
PJ Federal Peronism	28	Civic Coalition (CC-ARI)	19
Republican Proposal (PRO)	11	Civic Front for Santiago	7
Socialist Party	6	New Popular and Social Encounter	5
Generation for a National Encounter	5	Proyecto Sur	5
Peronist	4	Neuquino People's Movement (MPN)	3
Córdoba Civic Front	3	Solidarity and Equality (SI)	3
PJ Peronist Unity Nucleus	3	Concertation	2
Federal Córdoba	2	PJ of La Pampa	2
Free of the South Movement	2	Current of Federal Thought	2
Dialogue for Buenos Aires	1	Civic and Social Front of Catamarca	1
Federal Consensus	1	Federal Party of Tierra del Fuego	1
FORJA	1	PJ of Jujuy	1
Salta Renewal Party	1	Democratic Party of Mendoza	1
Democratic Progressive Party	1	Patagonia Social Party	1
Front for Everyone	1	Liberal Party of Corrientes	1
We Are All Salta	1	PJ Federal Peronist Front	1
Values for My Country	1
257 members

^[4]

2009 election

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

e • d 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

1. ^ National Deputies - Parliamentary Blocks - Argentina
2. ^ Honorable Senado de la Nación: Constitución Nacional (Spanish)
3. ^ Indec: Historia de los censos (Spanish)
4. ^ http://www.hcdn.gov.ar/

External links

• Chamber of Deputies Argentina - Official Site