The Chamber of Deputies (Spanish: Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados )[d] is the lower house of Chile's bicameral Congress. Together with the Senate, it forms the National Congress, which is chiefly responsible, alongside the President of the Republic, for the drafting and passage of legislation.[2] Its organisation and its powers and duties are defined in Chapter V (articles 42 to 59) of Chile's current constitution.[2]
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Chamber of Deputies of Chile
Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados
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| 57th legislative period | |
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| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | 4 July 1811 (First National Congress) |
| Leadership | |
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First Vice President
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Second Vice President
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| Structure | |
| Seats | 155 |
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Political groups
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Government (67)
Supported by (8)
Independents (15)
Opposition (65) |
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Length of term
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Four years, with two possible consecutive re-elections[1] |
| Elections | |
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Last election
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16 November 2025 |
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Next election
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By 2029 |
| Meeting place | |
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| Edificio del Congreso Nacional Valparaíso, Chile |
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| Website | |
| Cámara de Diputadas / Senado | |
Until 2019, the chamber's official name was the Cámara de Diputados de Chile ("Chamber of Deputies of Chile"). That year, the corporation's Internal Regime Committee approved changing the institutional name to the gender-inclusive Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados de Chile in its logo and internal communications, as part of a broader effort to promote non-sexist language in legislative work; the older name nonetheless remains in the constitutional text, the Organic Constitutional Law of Congress, and the chamber's own standing orders.[3]
Eligibility
editDeputies must: be aged at least 21; not be disqualified from voting; have finished secondary school or its equivalent; and have lived in the region corresponding to their electoral district for at least two years prior to the election.[4]
Electoral system
editSince 2017, Chile's Congress has been elected through open list proportional representation under the D'Hondt method, following a 2015 electoral reform that replaced the country's earlier binomial system and increased the number of electoral districts from 60 to 28.[5]
Before 2017, a unique binomial system was used. This system rewards coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for each electoral district's two Chamber seats. Typically, the two largest coalitions in a district divided the seats, one each, among themselves. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polled the second-place coalition by a margin of more than two-to-one did the winning coalition gain both seats, with seats allocated using the simple quotient.
Under the 1925 Constitution, deputies had been elected directly from departments or groupings of departments, with one deputy for roughly every 30,000 inhabitants; a system of proportional allocation using the D'Hondt method distributed seats within each grouping according to the votes each list obtained. The 1980 Constitution originally set the chamber at 120 members elected for four-year terms from 60 electoral districts, with each district returning two deputies chosen under the binomial formula described above.[6]
The Chamber of Deputies meets in Chile's National Congress located in the port city of Valparaíso, some 120 km north of the capital, Santiago. The Congress building in Valparaíso replaced the old National Congress, located in downtown Santiago, in 1990. [citation needed]
Powers and functions
editUnder the 1980 Constitution, the Chamber of Deputies holds certain powers exclusively, and shares others with the Senate.[2]
Exclusive powers
editOversight of the government. The Chamber may request information from the government: by a majority vote of deputies present it can adopt agreements or observations, which must be forwarded in writing to the President of the Republic, who must reply through the relevant Minister of State within 30 days; individual deputies, with the support of at least one third of members present, may likewise request specific information, which the President must answer within the same timeframe.[2]
The Chamber may also summon a Minister of State to be questioned on matters related to their portfolio (interpelación), at the request of at least one third of sitting deputies; a given minister cannot be interpellated more than three times in a calendar year without the support of an absolute majority of deputies, and attendance is compulsory.[2]
At the request of at least two-fifths of sitting deputies, the Chamber may establish special investigative committees to gather information on specific government actions; Ministers of State, other public officials, and staff of state-owned or majority state-owned enterprises are obliged to appear before such committees and to supply the information requested, although ministers cannot be summoned more than three times to the same committee without the support of an absolute majority of its members.[2]
Constitutional accusations (impeachment). The Chamber has the exclusive power to decide, by a vote of not fewer than ten nor more than twenty of its members, whether to bring a acusación constitucional (constitutional accusation, roughly equivalent to impeachment) against: the President of the Republic, for acts that gravely compromise the honor or security of the Nation or that openly violate the Constitution or the law; Ministers of State, for similar conduct or for treason, embezzlement of public funds, or bribery; judges of the higher courts and the Comptroller General, for notable neglect of duty; senior military and police commanders, for gravely compromising the honor or security of the Nation; and regional or provincial presidential delegates, for constitutional infractions or for treason, sedition, embezzlement, or extortion.[2] If the Chamber approves an accusation, the case is then tried by the Senate, which acts as a jury.
Shared powers
editTogether with the Senate, the Chamber approves or rejects international treaties submitted by the President prior to their ratification, and rules on the declaration of constitutional states of emergency.[2]
Leadership
editThe chamber's governing body, known as the Mesa (Bureau), consists of a president, a first vice president, and a second vice president, elected by the deputies at the start of each legislative period.[7] On 11 March 2022, the parties then in government agreed that the presidency would rotate among the Party for Democracy (PPD), the Communist Party (PC), the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), the Party of the People (PDG), the Broad Front (FA), and the Liberal Party (PL).[7]
Following the 2025 Chilean general election, the new 57th legislative period was installed on 11 March 2026. In the vote for the Bureau, deputy Jorge Alessandri Vergara (UDI) was elected president with 78 votes, after an agreement among left-wing and Party of the People (PDG) legislators that had been expected to elect Pamela Jiles collapsed; decisive support came from deputies of the Social Green Regionalist Federation and an independent aligned with the Christian Democrats.[8] Felipe Camaño, an independent aligned with the PDC, was elected first vice president, and Ximena Ossandón of National Renewal was elected second vice president.[9]
| Office | Holder | Party |
|---|---|---|
| President | Jorge Alessandri Vergara | Independent Democratic Union |
| First Vice President | Felipe Camaño | Independent (PDC-aligned) |
| Second Vice President | Ximena Ossandón | National Renewal |
Composition
editThe 2026–2030 legislative period renewed more than half of the chamber's membership: of the 155 deputies, 84 were newly elected and 71 returned from the previous period, though five of the newcomers had previously served as deputies before 2022.[10] As of March 2026, 52 of the 155 deputies (33.5 percent) are women, the highest level of female representation in the chamber's history.[11] Deputies are addressed with the honorific title "honorable".
Parliamentary groups
editDeputies organize themselves into parliamentary groups (comités or bancadas), each of which must include at least seven deputies from one or more political parties; a group's jefe de bancada (group leader) liaises with the Bureau to help expedite the chamber's business. Independent deputies are required to join a parliamentary group.[12]
Political composition (2026-2030)
editRemuneration
editUnder article 62 of the Constitution, deputies and senators receive, as their sole income, a salary (dieta parlamentaria) equivalent to that of a Cabinet minister, inclusive of all associated allowances.[13] In addition to their base salary, deputies receive monthly allowances for representation expenses, office and district costs, fuel, and domestic and international air travel, which are set and periodically adjusted by a Council for Parliamentary Allowances.[14]
Public approval
edit
According to polling by Adimark, the Chamber of Deputies has not enjoyed majority public approval at any point since March 2010. Approval ratings followed a declining trend, reaching a low of 14 percent in July 2012 and August 2013, while disapproval rose correspondingly, peaking at 78 percent in August 2012 and August 2013.[15]
Deputies
editSee also
editNotes
edit- ↑
- RN (13)
- Evópoli (2)
- Independent (1)
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ In Spanish, the Chamber's name includes both 'Diputadas' (female Deputies) and 'Diputados' (male Deputies), which in English is just translated to the gender-neutral 'Deputies'.
- ↑ Party name and leaders current as of 8 July 2024
- ↑ Parliamentary Group: internal organisation of the congress; does not necessarily represent membership of political parties
- ↑ Seat numbers current as of 4 January 2026
References
edit- ↑ Ley Fácil - BCN (21 September 2020). "Límite a la reelección de autoridades". Ley Fácil (in Spanish). Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Constitución Política de la República de Chile" (in Spanish). Ministerio Secretaría General de la Presidencia. Retrieved 8 July 2020 – via LeyChile.
- ↑ "Histórico cambio de nombre: "Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados de Chile"". Cooperativa.cl (in Spanish). 12 March 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
- ↑ "Elecciones 2021: ¿Cuánto gana un diputado en Chile?" (in Spanish). Meganoticias. 8 September 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ↑ Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (5 May 2015). "Ley núm. 20.840 - Sustituye el Sistema Electoral binominal por uno de carácter proporcional inclusivo y fortalece la representatividad del congreso nacional" (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 May 2017.
- ↑ "Límite a la reelección de autoridades". Ley Fácil (in Spanish). Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. 21 September 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
- 1 2 "The PPD Raúl Soto will assume presidency of the Chamber of Deputies". El Mostrador. 11 March 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
- ↑ Valdés, Gabriela (11 March 2026). "Alessandri (UDI) es elegido presidente de la Cámara: Se cayó acuerdo de la izquierda y el PDG que impulsaba a Jiles (PDG)" (in Spanish). Emol. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ↑ "Nueva Cámara asumió hoy con Jorge Alessandri como Presidente de la Corporación" (in Spanish). Chamber of Deputies of Chile. Retrieved 6 October 2026.
- ↑ "Cámara renueva más del 50% de su integración" (in Spanish). Chamber of Deputies of Chile. 12 March 2026. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ↑ "Del sufragio femenino al Golpe de Estado" (in Spanish). Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ↑ "Bancadas parlamentarias". www.camara.cl (in Spanish). Chamber of Deputies of Chile. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
- ↑ "Elecciones 2021: ¿Cuánto gana un diputado en Chile?" (in Spanish). Meganoticias. 8 September 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ↑ "El sueldo de los "elegidos"". Revista Capital (in Spanish). 5 September 2008. Archived from the original on 11 September 2008. Retrieved 13 September 2008.
- ↑ AdimarkGfK. "Investigación de mercados" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2012.