General Information
At stake in this election:
- 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (Camara de Diputados).
Description of government structure:
- Chief of State: President Sebastian PIÑERA
- Head of Government: President Sebastian PIÑERA
- Assembly: Chile has a bicameral National Congress (Congreso Nacional) consisting of the Senate (Senado) with 38 seats and the Chamber of Deputies (Camara de Diputados) with 120 seats.
Description of electoral system:
- In the Chamber of Deputies (Camara de Diputados) 120 members are elected through a closed party-list majority system to serve 4-year terms. Chile uses a binomial closed-list system. There are 60 two-member districts in the Chamber of Deputies (Camera de Diputados). Each electoral bloc (coalition or independent party) proposes 2 candidates per district. If the bloc that achieves a plurality obtains more than twice as many votes as the runner-up, it is awarded both seats. Otherwise, 1 seat is awarded to the candidate with the most votes in the most successful bloc, and 1 is awarded to the candidate with the most votes in the runner-up bloc.
Election Notes:
- The last Chamber of Deputies (Camara de Diputados) election was held on December 13, 2009
Main parties in the electoral race:
- New Majority / Nueva Mayoria
- Coalition Members: Broad Social Movement / Movimiento Amplio Social (MAS), Christian Democratic Party / Partido Demócrata Cristiano (PDC), Citizen Left / Izquierda Ciudadana (IC), Communist Party / Partido Comunista (PCCh), Party for Democracy / Partido por la Democracia (PPD), Social Democrat Radical Party / Partido Radical Socialdemócrata (PRS), and the Socialist Party / Partido Socialist (PS).
- Leader: Michelle BACHELET
- Seats won in last election: N/A[i]
- Alliance / Alianza
- Coalition Members: National Renewal / Renovación Nacional (RN) and Independent Democratic Union / Unión Democrática Independiente (UDI).
- Leader: Evelyn MATTHEI
- Seats won in last election: N/A[ii]
- Chile Changes, If You Want It / Si tú quires, Chile Cambia
- Coalition Members: Progressive Party / Partido Progresista (PP) and Liberal Party / Partido Liberal (PL).
- Leader: Marco ENRÍQUEZ-OMINAMI
- Seats won in last election: 0[iii]
- Humanist Party / Partido Humanista
- Leader: Marcel CLAUDE
- Seats won in last election: 0
- New Constitution for Chile / Nueva Constitución para Chile
- Coalition Members: Green Ecologist Party / Partido Ecologista Verde and Equality Party / Partido Igualdad
- Leader: Roxana MIRANDA and Alfredo SFEIR
- Seats won in last election: 0
- Regionalist Party of the Independents / Partido Regionalista de los Independientes
- Leader: Ricardo ISRAEL
- Seats won in last election: 3
- Independents
- Seats won in last election: 2
Population and number of registered voters:
- Population: 17,216,945 (July 2013 est.)
- Registered Voters: 13,388,643 (January 2012)[iv]
Gender Data:
· Female Population: 8,906,407 (2013)
· Is Chile a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (17 July 1980)
· Has Chile ratified CEDAW: Yes (7 December 1989)
· Gender Quota: No
· Female candidates in this election: No
· Number of Female Parliamentarians: 19 (Chamber of Deputies); 4 (Senate) (following 2013 parliamentary election)
· Human Development Index Position: 42 (2014)
· Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A
Disability Data:
· Is Chile a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)
· Has Chile ratified CRPD: Yes (29 July 2008)
· Population with a disability: 2,582,541 (est.)
[i] Predecessor coalition, Concertación and Juntos Podemos Más, won 57 seats in the 2009 election. In addition to the parties previously represented in Concertación, the PCCh, IC, and MAS parties have joined the coalition for this election.
[ii] Predecessor coalition, the Coalition for Change won 58 seats in the 2009 election.
[iii] New coalition.
[iv] An electoral reform law passed in Jan. 2012 automatically registered all Chileans over the age of 18 to vote, increasing voter registration by 55 percent.