National Congress of Chile

Patria Vieja Patria Nueva Dictatorship 1973-1990 On 13 September 1973, the Government Junta of Chile dissolved Congress. During the last years of the Pinochet regime, the current building of Congress was built in the port city of Valparaíso, some 140 km west of the country's capital, Santiago. This new building replaced the Former National Congress Building, located in downtown Santiago. Transition to Democracy Between 1989 and 2013, elections in Chile were carried out following a binomial voting system, which was prescribed in 1980 during the Military dictatorship of Chile. The binomial system was considered by most analysts as the main constitutional lock that prevented completion of the Chilean transition to democracy. == Procedure ==

Sessions Congress operates through plenary sessions and committees, in accordance with the Constitution and the rules of each chamber. Plenary sessions may be: • Ordinary: held during the regular period of operation of Congress. • Special: convened to deal with one or more specific matters. • Extraordinary: held outside the ordinary period, at the request of the President of the Republic. • Secret: sessions in which, by agreement of the chamber, proceedings are held without public access. • Requested: sessions requested by a specified number of parliamentarians, in accordance with internal rules. National Congress and Plenary Congress A joint meeting of the two chambers is called Plenary Congress when it is presided over by the President of the Senate and is held in order to: • Hear the presidential mandatory annual report on the administrative and political state of the nation (Presidential Public Address), delivered by the President of the Republic. • Take note of the decision by which the Elections Qualifying Court proclaims the president-elect. • Receive the oath or solemn promise of the president-elect before he or she assumes office. • In exceptional cases, proceed to the election of the President of the Republic in cases of vacancy in the office. Before the 2005 constitutional reform, the Plenary Congress also met to approve or reject, without debate, constitutional reforms previously discussed and approved by both chambers. Likewise, before the entry into force of the 1980 Constitution, the Plenary Congress met to take note of the general count of the presidential election and proclaim the president-elect. If no candidate obtained an absolute majority, it fell to the Plenary Congress to elect, from among the two candidates who had received the highest relative majorities, the President of the Republic, and to proclaim that person accordingly. == Location ==

From the First National Congress in 1811 until 1828, Chilean congresses—and other equivalent bodies or assemblies—met permanently in Santiago. This changed with the Constituent Congress of 1828, which sat in Valparaíso during the final stage of its sessions. Later, with the National Congress of Chile of 1828, sessions returned to Santiago from 1 September of that year, a practice that continued uninterrupted until 1973. The Congresses of 1824–1825 and the Constituent Congress of 1826 were initially called to meet in the cities of Quillota and Rancagua, respectively; however, at the request of the majority of the elected deputies, it was decreed that both would ultimately meet in Santiago. Nevertheless, the idea of moving the seat of Congress to a city other than Santiago remained. Thus, deputy Manuel Araos (alternate member for Cauquenes) presented, on 16 April 1828, a motion to establish the city of Valparaíso as the seat of the sessions, which was reported to the chamber two days later. The initiative was approved on 24 April 1828 and became law the following day, ordering the transfer of Congress to Valparaíso. The Palace of the Royal Audiencia of Santiago, located opposite the Plaza de Armas of Santiago, was designated for its sessions. with the bicameral system already consolidated. In the absence of its own building, the chambers met separately: the Senate met in the building of the Consulate Court, and the Chamber of Deputies met in the facilities of the University of San Felipe—during hours when classes were not being held—on the site now occupied by the Municipal Theatre of Santiago. The chamber used by the deputies measured 60 feet long by 30 feet wide. In 1857 the construction project began for what would become Chile's first legislative palace. In Valparaíso On 11 March 1990, parliamentary activity resumed after more than 16 years of recess as a result of the military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990). For reasons of decentralization, the seat of Congress was transferred to the city of Valparaíso. Construction of the building began on 20 October 1988. This 60,000 m² structure, whose framework used 26,000 m³ of reinforced concrete, stands on a 25,000 m² site formerly occupied by Enrique Deformes Hospital of Valparaíso, which was demolished following the severe damage caused by the earthquake of 3 March 1985. Library Congress has a library, an institution comparable to the Library of Congress of the United States, which provides specialized information services to its members, as well as a Centre for Computing and Information Technology, without prejudice to other shared services that both chambers may jointly agree to establish. == See also ==