Argentine Chamber of Deputies


The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. It is made up of 257 national deputies who are elected in multi-member constituencies corresponding with the territories of the 23 provinces of Argentina by party list proportional representation. Elections to the Chamber are held every two years; half of its members are renewed each election.
The Constitution of Argentina lays out certain attributions that are unique to the Chamber of Deputies. The 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. Additionally, the Chamber of Deputies receives for consideration bills presented by popular initiative.
The Chamber of Deputies is presided over by the President of the Chamber, who is deputized by three Vice Presidents.

Current 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 using proportional representation, D'Hondt formula with a 3% of the district registered voters threshold, and the following distribution:

By province

By political groups

All data from official website.

Requirements

In order for an Argentine citizen to be elected to congress, they have 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 of 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 two 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, censuses were conducted generationally, rather than every decade, until 1947.

Apportionment controversy

The distribution of the Chamber of Deputies is regulated since 1982 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

The President of the Chamber is elected by the majority caucus. The officeholders for this post since 1983 have been:
Term beganTerm endedOfficeholderPartyProvince
December 10, 1983April 3, 1989Juan Carlos PuglieseUCR
April 3, 1989July 8, 1989Leopoldo MoreauUCR
July 8, 1989December 10, 1999Alberto PierriPJ
December 10, 1999December 10, 2001Rafael PascualUCR
December 10, 2001December 10, 2005Eduardo CamañoPJ
December 10, 2005December 10, 2007Alberto BalestriniFPV - PJ
December 10, 2007December 6, 2011Eduardo FellnerFPV - PJ
December 6, 2011December 4, 2015Julián DomínguezFPV - PJ
December 4, 2015December 4, 2019Emilio MonzóPRO-Cambiemos
December 4, 2015incumbentSergio MassaEverybody's Front

Current authorities

Leadership positions include:
TitleOfficeholderPartyProvince
Chamber PresidentSergio MassaEverybody's Front
First Vice-PresidentÁlvaro GonzálezPRO-Together for Change
Second Vice-PresidentJosé Luis GiojaEverybody's Front
Third Vice-PresidentAlfredo CornejoUCR-Together for Change
Parliamentary SecretaryEduardo Cergnul--
Administrative SecretaryRodrigo Rodríguez--
Coordinating Secretary--