| Parliament name (generic / translated) |
Congreso de la nación / National Congress |
| Structure of parliament |
Bicameral |
| Chamber name (generic / translated) |
Senado / Senate |
| Related chamber (for bicameral parliaments) |
Cámara de Diputados / Chamber of Deputies
|
| LEGAL FRAMEWORK |
| Electoral Law |
18 August 1983
Last amendment: 1 November 2012 (Law 26.774) |
| Mode of designation |
directly elected 72 |
| Constituencies |
24 multi-member (3 seats) constituencies, corresponding to the country's 23 provinces and the Federal Capital (Buenos Aires).
|
| Voting system |
Majority:
Majority vote in one round, using party lists.
The list which obtains the highest percentage of votes in each constituency will be granted two seats, while the list with the second highest percentage of votes will take the remaining one seat.
Voting is compulsory between 18 and 70 years old, with some exceptions (illness and long distance from polling stations); penalties for abstention consist of a fine (between 50 and 500 Argentine pesos) and prohibition to hold public office or employment for three years from the election.
Vacancies arising between general elections are filled by substitutes elected at the same time as titular members. |
| Voter requirements |
- age: 16 years
- Argentine citizenship (request for registration on electoral lists for naturalised citizens three years after acquiring citizenship); since 1997, Argentines living abroad can register to vote. |
| CANDIDATES |
| Eligibility |
- age: 30 years
- Argentine citizenship
- birth in province where running or residence there for at least 2 years preceding the elections |
| Incompatibilities |
- Government minister
- provincial governor
- Government minister
- provincial governor
- Persons excluded from the electoral registers as a result of legal provisions in force;
- Members of the armed forces;
- Members of the State security forces;
- Judges and permanent staff of the judicial branch;
- Directors or executives of companies that have a concession to provide services or public works for the State, provinces, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, municipalities or self-sufficient or decentralized entities or of companies that deal in games of chance;
- Persons tried for genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, acts of unlawful repression that constitute grave human rights violations, torture, enforced disappearance of persons, abduction of children and other serious human rights violations or criminal behaviour provided for in the Rome Statute and falling within the purview of the International Criminal Court, for crimes committed between 24 March 1976 and 10 December 1983;
- Persons convicted of the crimes described above even in cases where the court ruling could not be executed. |
| Candidacy requirements |
- nomination by political party or coalition of parties |
Compare data for parliamentary chambers in the Electoral system module
