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The Election of
Mexico's Congress
August,
2003
Mexico’Äôs federal legislature is
called the Congresso de la Union. It consists of
two chambers, the Camara de Diputados
(Chamber of Deputies), and the
Camara de Senadores (Senate ).
We have created a table of votes
and seats won by parties in the July 2003
elections
. The Chamber of
Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies has 500
members, who are elected for three year terms
. Representatives cannot serve for two
consecutive terms, although they can serve again after an
intermediate term. Of its 500 members, 300 are
elected by plurality in single member districts, and 200 are elected
by full representation (known internationally as proportional
representation) using a party list
system. No political party is allowed to have more than 300 of the
500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. (Therefore no party can gain the
two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution by itself.)
Also, no political party is
allowed to hold a share of seats in the Chamber of Deputies which is
more than 8% larger than their share of the total national vote,
unless they earn all of their seats in the single member district
elections.
For example, if a party wins 40%
of the national vote, it cannot have more than 48% of the 500 seats
(that is, 240), unless it wins all of those 240 seats in the single
member district elections (which is unlikely to happen).
This places a limit on the
disproportionality of the final outcome, and makes the Mexican
system in theory slightly more proportional than ’Äúparallel’Äù systems,
which elect some seats by single member plurality and others by full
representation, without adjusting the number of full representation
seats awarded to compensate for dispropotionalities in the single
member plurality elections. (For example, Japan and Russia.)
However, it is perhaps less
proportional than systems than other ’Äúmixed member proportional’Äù
systems which aim to use the full representation component to
compensate for all of the disproportionality in the single member
component, rather than coming within an 8% range of doing so. (For
example, Germany and New Zealand.)
The full representation component
of the election is carried out by means of regional lists in five
multi-member districts, which each elect 40
members. In order to participate
in the Chamber of Deputies election, a party must demonstrate that
it has registered candidates for at least 200 of the 300 single
member seats. Party lists are ranked. For
example, if a party gains 10 seats in a multi-member district, the
first 10 candidates on the party’Äôs list are given seats. Lists in
Mexico are closed
,
which means that voters cannot affect the order of their chosen
party’Äôs list. Parties can register up to 60 candidates as
contestants for both single member and party list elections. Parties must attain at least 2%
of the regional votes cast in the multi-member districts
to be eligible for the full representation seats.
The Senate
The Senate has 128 members, who
are elected for six year terms
. Senators cannot serve for two consecutive terms,
although they can serve again after an intermediate term. Three Senators are elected in
each one of the 32
states within Mexico,
which accounts for 96 of the 128 seats. In each of these states, parties
set up a two-candidate list to be voted upon. Two of the three seats
is given to the party with the most votes, and the remaining one
seat is given to the party with the second most votes
.
The remaining 32 seats are
elected by full representation in one national multi-member district
.
2003 Chamber of Deputies
Election
We have put together
a table of votes and seats won by party in the Chamber of
Deputies election on July 6, 2003. They are available at [http://www.fairvote.org/pr/global/mexicocd2003a.htm]
Links
http://www.ife.org.mx/wwwcai/2eng.htm
"2003
Federal Electoral Process." The primary source for information on
this page.
http://electionworld.org/mexico.htm
Summary of Mexican government structure and election
results.
http://www.ife.org.mx/
Instituto
Federal Electoral: The official web site of Mexico's election
authority.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Mexico
Online
encyclopedia article on "Politics of
Mexico."
____________________
Researched by James Green-Armytage, as associate of
the Center for Voting and Democracy, in August
2003. |
