Senate of Mexico
The
Senate (
Spanish:
Cámara de Senadores or
Senado) is the upper house of
Mexico's
bicameral Congress.
After a series of reforms during the
1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:
*Two for each of the 31
states and two for the
Federal District elected under the principle of relative majority;
*One for each of the 31 states and one for the Federal District,
assigned under the principle of first minority (i.e. awarded to the party who had won the second highest number of votes within the state or Federal District);
*Thirty-two national senators-at-large, divided among the parties in proportion to their share of the national vote.
In a senatorial race, each party nominates 2 candidates who run and are elected
together by direct vote. The party of the 2 candidates that won the second hightest vote within the state or the Federal District then assigns a senator to occupy the third seat (first minority seat), according to the list of candidates that the party registered before the
Federal Electoral Institute (IFE).
Party strengths in the Senate for the
2000-
06 period stand as follows (figures as of
January 2004):
*
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) =
58*
National Action Party (PAN) =
47*
Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) =
15*
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) =
5*Independent =
3*
Convergence =
0*
Labour Party =
0*
Mexican Senate
