Argentine Senate.html



Argentina

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Argentina

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The Argentine Senate is the upper house of parliament in Argentina. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Senators are elected by direct election on a provincial basis, with the party with the most votes being awarded two of the province's senate seats and the second-place party receiving the third seat. Currently one-third of the members are elected every two years to a six-year term: in other words, one-third of the provinces hold senatorial elections every two years. There are no restrictions on repeated re-election.

The Senate is presided over by the Vice-President of the Republic, who has the casting vote in the event of ties.

Requirements

According to Section 55 of the Argentine Constitution, candidates for the Argentine Senate must

• be at least 30 years old
• have been a citizen of Argentina for six years
• be native to the province of his office, or have been a resident of that province for two years.

Composition

See List of current members of the Argentine Senate

‡

Although there are, as of December 2007, 18 party blocks in the Senate, in reality these act as a smaller number of groupings. [2] [3]

Some of the provincial electoral fronts and the Plural Consensus of dissident radicals support the majority Front for Victory block. There is speculation that the Plural Consensus block may grow if the other FPV-supporting senators join. The Socialist Party senator and the two existing ARI senators are expected to work closely with the new Civic Coalition senators, but they have not formed a single block. There are three sets of 'dissident' Peronists, and various provincial parties, mainly of the right, who work with other blocks as occasion arises. This has left the second largest block, the Radical Civic Union, rather isolated with its eight remaining senators. [4]

Leading senators

The Senate is presided over by the Vice-President of the country, currently Julio Cobos. Day to day leadership of the Senate is conducted by the 'Provisional President', who has been Front for Victory (FPV) Senator José Pampuro since 2006.

Other positions include:

• Senate Vice-President - Sen. Juan Carlos Romero (FPV)
• First Vice-President - Sen. Juan Carlos Marino (UCR)
• Second Vice-President - Sen. Roberto Basualdo (Alliance Front of Production and Labour)
• Administrative Secretary - Carlos Machiaroli
• Parliamentary Secretary - Juan Estrada

• Leader of the PJ Front for Victory block - Sen. Miguel Ángel Pichetto
• Leader of the UCR block - Sen. Ernesto Sanz [5]

2005 election

See also

• Argentine Chamber of Deputies
• List of former Argentine Senators

External links

• senado.gov.ar – Senate of Argentina