Elections in Chile - Parliamentary Elections

Parliamentary Elections

Chile's bicameral Congress consists of a Chamber of Deputies (lower house) and a Senate (upper house). The country is divided into 60 electoral districts for the lower house and 19 senatorial constituencies for the Senate. (See Electoral divisions of Chile for details.) Each electoral district and senatorial constituency directly elects two representatives. That is, 120 deputies and 38 senators, in total. Chile is the only country in the world with two-seat electoral districts.

Deputies serve for four years and senators for eight years. Both deputies and senators may seek reelection indefinitely. Half the Senate is renewed every four years. In the first Senate after the restoration of democracy in 1990, senators from odd-numbered regions served for four years (1990-1994), while senators from even-numbered regions plus the Santiago Metropolitan Region served for eight years (1990-1998). The senators from odd-numbered regions elected in 1993 served the usual eight years (1994-2002).

The Constitution establishes that parliamentary elections will be held in conjunction with presidential elections.

Candidates may register their candidacy with the backing of either a political party or of a group of citizens. In the former case, party affiliation is not mandatory for the candidates. In the latter case, candidates must not be affiliated with any political party and are required to collect a number of signatures. The signatures needed are at least 0.5% of the turnout of the last Chamber of Deputies election in that electoral district (if running for a lower-chamber seat) or last Senate election in that senatorial constituency (if running for a Senate seat), and they must come from independent electors.

The law allows two or more political parties to ally one another to create "pacts". Pacts may present up to two candidates per electoral district or senatorial constituency. It is not mandatory for the candidates to be affiliated with any of the political parties forming the pact, but they cannot be affiliated with a political party outside the pact.

Political parties not integrating a pact may present up to two candidates per electoral district or senatorial constituency. In this case, the candidates must be affiliated with that party.

For every electoral district and senatorial constituency election the two political entities receiving the most votes are awarded one seat each, with the leading candidate within each entity taking the seat. To win both seats, the leading entity must out poll the second leading entity by a margin exceeding 2-to-1. This is a rare use of the d'Hondt method, with only two seats allocated per electoral division.

Elections were last held on 13 December 2009, and are next scheduled to take place on 17 November 2013.