General Assembly of Uruguay

General Assembly of Uruguay

Asamblea General de Uruguay
General Assembly of Uruguay ; Asamblea General de Uruguay
49th Legislature of the Chamber of Senators; 49th Legislature of the Chamber of Deputies
Type
Type	Bicameral
Houses	Chamber of Senators; Chamber of Deputies
Leadership
President of the General Assembly & Senate	Beatriz Argimón, National Party ; since March 1, 2020
President of the Chamber of Representatives	Ana Olivera, Broad Front ; since March 1, 2024
Structure
Seats	129 members; 99 deputies; 30 senators
Senate political groups	Government National Party (10); Colorado Party (4); Open Cabildo (3); Opposition Broad Front (13);
Chamber of Representatives political groups	Government (56) National Party (30); Colorado Party (13); Open Cabildo (11); Independent Party (1); Partido de la Gente (1); Opposition (43) Broad Front (42); PERI (1);
Elections
Senate voting system	Proportional representation
Last Senate election	27 October 2019
Last Chamber of Representatives election	27 October 2019
Meeting place
	Palacio Legislativo, Montevideo
Website
	www.parlamento.gub.uy

The General Assembly of Uruguay (Spanish: Asamblea General de Uruguay) or parliament is the legislative branch of the government of Uruguay, and consists of two chambers: the Chamber of Senators and the Chamber of Representatives. General Assembly has 130 voting members: 99 representatives and 30 senators, the Vice President of the Republic, who serves as President of the General Assembly, and the Senate has the right to vote. The legislature meets in the Legislative Palace in Montevideo. Both senators and representatives are chosen through proportional representation for five-year terms.^[1]

The General Assembly holds its sessions in the Chamber of Representatives of the Legislative Palace. During the 19th century, the legislature met in the Montevideo Cabildo.

History

In 1828, on the initiative of Juan Antonio Lavalleja, delegates were elected to what was to be the Parliament of the Eastern Province of Río de la Plata. As a consequence of the Treaty of Montevideo, such institution became the General Constituent and Legislative Assembly of the State, and had among other tasks the drafting of the country's first Constitution.^[2]

The Assembly was unicameral. But since the establishment of the Constitution in 1830, the Uruguayan Parliament became bicameral, and has remained so to this day. The voting system of its members also changed: during the 19th century, voting was reserved for a minority, and senators represented departments. Later, the secret and universal vote was established, and the representativeness of the senators, who are elected at the national level, was reformulated.^[3]

Attributes

The ordinary sessions span is from March 1 to December 15, or until September 15 in the event that elections are held, since the new Assembly must begin its sessions on February 15 of the following year.^[4]

Article Ninety of the Uruguayan Constitution requires that members of the Chamber of Representatives must be aged at least 25 and have been a citizen of Uruguay for five years.^[5] While Article Ninety-eight requires that the members of the Senate must be at least 30 years old and have been Uruguayan citizens for seven years.^[6]

The General Assembly is entitled to politically judge the conduct of the Ministers of State, to declare war and to approve or reject peace treaties, alliances, commerce, and conventions or contracts of any nature that the Executive Power enters into with foreign powers and designate every year the necessary armed force, as well as allowing foreign troops to enter the country. Denying or granting the departure of national forces outside the nation is also among the functions of the Assembly. The creation of new Departments, the setting of their limits, as well as the establishment of customs and export and import duties concern the legislative power, in addition to other functions established in Article Eighty-Five of the Constitution.^[7]

Latest elections



Party		Presidential candidate	First round		Second round		Seats
Party		Presidential candidate	Votes	%	Votes	%	Chamber	+/–	Senate	+/–
	Broad Front	Daniel Martínez	949,376	40.49	1,152,271	49.21	42	–8	13	–2
	National Party	Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou	696,452	29.70	1,189,313	50.79	30	–2	10	0
	Colorado Party	Ernesto Talvi	300,177	12.80			13	0	4	0
	Open Cabildo	Guido Manini Ríos	268,736	11.46			11	New	3	New
	Partido Ecologista Radical Intransigente	César Vega	33,461	1.43			1	+1	0	0
	Partido de la Gente	Edgardo Novick	26,313	1.12			1	+1	0	0
	Independent Party	Pablo Mieres	23,580	1.01			1	–2	0	–1
	Popular Unity	Gonzalo Abella	19,728	0.84			0	–1	0	0
	Green Animalist Party	Gustavo Salle	19,392	0.83			0	New	0	New
	Digital Party	Daniel Goldman	6,363	0.27			0	New	0	New
	Workers' Party	Rafael Fernández	1,387	0.06			0	0	0	0
Total			2,344,965	100.00	2,341,584	100.00	99	0	30	0

Valid votes			2,344,965	96.37	2,341,584	96.23
Invalid/blank votes			88,399	3.63	91,612	3.77
Total votes			2,433,364	100.00	2,433,196	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			2,699,978	90.13	2,699,980	90.12
Source: Corte Electoral (first round); Corte Electoral (second round)

Library of the Legislative Power

The Library of the Legislative Power of Uruguay is a specialized institution whose main objective is to assist Uruguayan legislators and the cultural development of the community in the fulfillment of its functions, in order to provide documentation, information and advice to citizens, thanks to extensive bibliographic, jurisprudential, doctrinal and legislative collection.^[8] It is considered the second most important library in Uruguay, behind the National Library, due to the large collection and the status of parliamentary and public library.^[9] The current library was founded on August 25, 1929, and has its origin in the unification of the libraries of the Chamber of Representatives and the Chamber of Senators.^[10]