Politics of Chile
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Government
Chile is a republic with an elected President and a bicameral National Congress. The vote is available to all citizens of at least 18 years of age and is compulsory for registered voters. Registration is voluntary.
Executive branch
Chile elects its President by popular vote for a six-year term. The President appoints the cabinet.
The last presidential election was held on 12 December 1999, with a runoff election held on 16 January 2000. The next is scheduled to be held in December 2005. President Ricardo Lagos Escobar has held this office since 11 March 2000, after winning 51% of the vote.
Legislative branch
The bicameral National Congress (Congreso Nacional) consists of the Senate (Senado) and the Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados).
Chile's congressional elections are governed by a unique binomial system that rewards coalition slates. Each coalition can present two candidates for the two Senate and two lower-chamber seats apportioned to each chamber's electoral districts. Typically, the two largest coalitions split the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket outpolls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 does the winning coalition gain both seats. The political parties with the largest representation in the current Chilean Congress are the centrist Christian Democrat Party and the center-right National Renewal Party (Renovación Nacional). The Communist Party and the small Humanist Party failed to gain any seats in the 1997 elections.
Elections are very labor intensive but efficient, and vote counting normally takes place the evening of the election day. One voting table, with a ballot-box each, is set up for at-most 200 names in the voting registry. Each table is manned by five people (vocales de mesa) from the same registry. Vocales have the duty to work as such during a cycle of elections, and can be penalized legally if they do not show up. A registered citizen can only vote after his identity has been verified at the table corresponding to his registry. Ballots are manually counted by the five vocales, after the table has closed, at least eight hours after opening, and the counting witnessed by representatives of all the parties who choose to have observers.
The Senate is made up of 48 members. 38 of these are elected from regions or subregions. Those elected members serve eight-year staggered terms.
Nine senators are appointed:
- two former members of the Supreme Court, chosen by their working peers.
- one ex-Contralor (head of the Contraloría General de la Republica, the institution that audits the legality of all the actions of the administration), also selected by the Supreme Court.
- one former Commander in Chief of the Army, one former Commander of the Navy, one former Commander of the Air Force and one former Director General of the Carabineros, all selected by the National Security Council.
- one former president of an accredited University, designated by the President of the Republic.
- one former Minister of State (head of a ministry or cabinet secretary), also designated by the President of the Republic.
Appointed Senators also have eight-year terms.
Former Presidents who have served at least six years can join the Senate, becoming senadores vitalicios, senators for life. General Augusto Pinochet was senator for life, but resigned because of his age.
The Chamber of Deputies has 120 members, who are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. The last congressional elections were held in October 2001. The next congressional elections are scheduled for 2006.
The current Senate composition is nineteen from the governing coalition, eighteen from the opposition, one independent (who was part of one of the governing parties, but resigned), nine appointed and one for life. In March 1998, nine newly appointed institutional senators appointed in 1999, and one "senator for life," former President Frei.
The current lower house — the Chamber of Deputies — contains 58 members of the governing coalition and 53 from the rightist opposition and eight "independents" (many of whom ran on opposition tickets in the last elections or others who where expelled from the Christian Democrats because they where accused of frauds).
Since 1987 the Congress operates in the port city of Valparaíso, about 110 kilometers (~70 mi.) northwest of the capital, Santiago. However some commissions are allowed to meet in other places, especially Santiago. Congressional members have tried repeatedly to relocate the Congress back to Santiago, where it operated until the 1973, but have not been successful. The last attempt was in 2000, when the project was rejected by the Constitutional Court, because it allocated funds from the national budget, which, under the Chilean Constitution, is a privilege of the President.
Legal system
Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. The judges on the Supreme Court or Corte Suprema are appointed by the president and ratified by the Senate from lists of candidates provided by the court itself. The president of the Supreme Court is elected by the 21-member court.
Chile's legal system is based on the Code of 1857, derived from Spanish law and subsequent codes influenced by French and Austrian law. Chile provides for judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court. It does not accept compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.
Chile is in the process of completely overhauling its criminal justice system; a new, US-style adversarial system is being gradually implemented throughout the country with the final stage of implementation in the Santiago metropolitan region expected in June 2005.
Administrative divisions: Chile contains 13 regions (regiones, singular - región):
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| I: Tarapacá | II: Antofagasta | III: Atacama | IV: Coquimbo | V: Valparaíso | VI: O'Higgins | VII: Maule | VIII: Bío-Bío | IX: Araucanía | X: Los Lagos | XI: Aysen | XII: Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena | |
| RM: Santiago Metropolitan Region | |
- Note: Chile's territorial claims in Antarctica are not universally recognized by the international community of nations.
Parties and leaders
Alliance for Chile
- Independent Democratic Union (UDI) (Jovino Novoa)
- National Renewal (RN) (Sergio Diez)
Coalition of Parties for Democracy
- Christian Democratic Party (PDC) (Adolfo Zaldivar)
- Party for Democracy (PPD) (Víctor Barrueto)
- Social Democrat Radical Party (PRSD) (Orlando Cantuarias)
- Socialist Party (PS) (Gonzalo Martner)
Other parties
Pressure groups
- Student federations at all major universities
- Roman Catholic Church
- United Labor Central (CUT), trade unionists from Chile's five largest labor confederations
International organization participation
Chile or Chilean organizations participate in the following international organizations:
See also: flag of Chile
External links
All sites are in Spanish.
- Government of Chile (http://www.gobiernodechile.cl/) (English translation available)
- National Congress (http://www.congreso.cl/)
- Presidency (http://www.presidencia.cl/)
- Judicial Branch (http://www.poderjudicial.cl/)
- See also: Chile
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