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Argentine Senate; Honorable Senado de la Nación Argentina; (Honorable Cámara de Senadores)
Type
Type	Upper House
Leadership
President of the Senate	Julio Cobos, Radical Civic Union; since 10 December 2007
Provisional President	José Pampuro, PJ Front for Victory; since 2006
Majority Leader	Miguel Ángel Pichetto, PJ Front for Victory; since 2006
Minority Leader	Ernesto Sanz, Radical Civic Union
Structure
Members	72
Political groups	PJ Front for Victory; Radical Civic Union; Support for an Egalitarian Republic; Civic Coalition; Plural Consensus; PJ Federalism and Freedom; Civic Front for Santiago; Civic and Social Front of Catamarca; Republican Force; San Luis Justicialists; Federal Santa Fe; Production and Labour; Justicialist for Dialogue with Argentines; Neuquino People's Movement; New Party; New Party Corrientes; Salta Renewal Party; Socialist Party
Election
Last election	28 October 2007
Meeting place
	Senate Chamber, Argentine Congress; Buenos Aires, Argentina
Website
	http://www.senado.gov.ar

The floor of the Argentine Senate

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.

Following the 1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, the number of senators per province was raised from two to three, a change which took effect with the May 14, 1995, general elections.

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

[edit] 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.

[edit] Composition

See List of current members of the Argentine Senate

Party caucuses	Seats
Senate of Argentina (as of December 2009) ^[1]
Front for Victory	33
Civic Coalition	11
Radical Civic Union	8
Justicialist Party (anti-Kirchnerism alliance)	8

Civic Front for Santiago	2
Front for Everyone	2
Santa Fe Federal	2
Solidarity and Equality	2
Plural Consensus	1
Neuquén People's Movement	1

Production and Labour	1

Salta Renewal Party	1
72 members

Although there are, as of December 2009, 15 party caucuses in the Senate, these in reality function in a smaller number of alliances.^[2]^[3]

Some of the provincial electoral fronts (such as the Civic Front for Santiago) 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 (Federalism and Freedom, Santa Fe Federal, and Chiche Duhalde's Argentine Dialogue) and various provincial parties, mainly on the right, who work with other blocks as the occasion arises. This has left the third largest caucus, the Radical Civic Union, rather isolated with its eight remaining senators.^[3]

[edit] 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. Rubén Marín (FPV), La Pampa Province
First Vice-President - Sen. Juan Carlos Romero (FPV), Salta Province
Second Vice-President - Sen. Liliana Negre de Alonso (Justicialist), San Luis Province
Administrative Secretary - Jorge Tieppo
Parliamentary Secretary - Juan Estrada

Leader of the Front for Victory caucus - Sen. Miguel Ángel Pichetto, Río Negro Province
Leader of the Civic Coalition caucus - Sen. Rubén Giustiniani, Santa Fe Province
Leader of the UCR caucus - Sen. Ernesto Sanz, Mendoza Province

^[4]

[edit] 2009 election

Further information: Argentine legislative election, 2009

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Information about the legislature, Argentine Senate.Accessed 16 December 2009.
^ Argentine Senate: Caucuses (Spanish)
^ ^a ^b Parlamentario (Spanish)
^ [1]

[edit] External links

senado.gov.ar – Senate of Argentina

[0] Information about the legislature, Argentine Senate.Accessed 16 December 2009.

[1] Argentine Senate: Caucuses (Spanish)

[parl-2] Parlamentario (Spanish)

[3] [1]

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