Senate of the Republic Senado de la República | |
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LXVI Legislature | |
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Type | |
Type | of the Congress of Mexico |
Term limits | Renewable once consecutively |
History | |
Founded | 4 October 1824 |
Leadership | |
Structure | |
Seats | 128 |
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Political groups | Government (87)
Opposition (41) [1] |
Length of term | 6 years |
Authority | Chapter II of the Constitution of the United Mexican States |
Elections | |
Limited voting | |
Last election | 2 June 2024 |
Next election | 2 June 2030 |
Motto | |
La patria es primero(The Homeland Is First) | |
Meeting place | |
Senate Tribune Senate Building Mexico City, Mexico | |
Website | |
senado.gob.mx | |
Rules | |
Reglamento del Senado de la República (Spanish) |
The Senate of the Republic (Spanish: Senado de la República), constitutionally the Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union (Spanish: Cámara de Senadores del H. Congreso de la Unión), is the upper house of Mexico's bicameral Congress. It currently consists of 128 members, who serve six-year terms.
A bicameral legislature, including the Senate, was established on 4 October 1824. The Senate was abolished on 7 September 1857 and re-established on 13 November 1874. Under the regime of Porfirio Díaz (the Porfiriato: 1876–1910), many seats were given to elites and wealthy people loyal to the regime. During the Mexican Revolution, notably during the brief presidency of Francisco I. Madero, the Senate was left intact with Porfirian sympathizers, who blocked the president's attempts to pass reforms for the Revolution.
After a series of reforms during the 1990s, the Senate consists of 128 senators:[2]
In a senatorial race, each party or coalition nominates two candidates who run and are elected together by direct vote. The party or coalition of the two candidates that won the second highest vote within the state then assigns a senator to occupy the third seat (first minority seat), according to the list of candidates that the party or coalition registered with the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE).
Senators serve six-year terms, running concurrently with the president of Mexico's sexenio. Special elections are rare, as substitutes are chosen at every election. Until 2018, the Senate was completely renewed every six years since senators were barred from immediate reelection, but they can now serve a second term.
The current composition of the Senate is as follows:[3]
Party | Relative majority |
First minority |
At-large | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Morena | 47 | 6 | 13 | 66 | |
PAN | 4 | 11 | 6 | 21 | |
PVEM | 10 | 1 | 3 | 14 | |
PRI | − | 10 | 4 | 14 | |
PT | 3 | − | 3 | 6 | |
MC | − | 2 | 3 | 5 | |
No party | − | 2 | − | 2 |
In Spanish, it is conventional to refer to each legislature by the Roman numeral of its term. The current session (from 2024 to 2027) is the LXVI Legislatura (66th Legislature).
Senators are elected to serve during two legislatures, while members of the Chamber of Deputies serve only one. Thus, current senators (elected in the general election of 2 June 2024) serve during the 66th and 67th Legislatures.
A senator holds office for six years for which they were elected (from 1 September of the year of the election to 31 August six years later), divided into two legislatures of three years each.
The LXVI Legislature was installed on 1 September 2024, and its term will end on 31 August 2027. Senators were elected to office in the 2024 election for six years and have been in office since 1 September of that year; therefore, they will hold office during both the LXVI Legislature and the LXVII Legislature.
According to the Constitution, senators are the representatives of the nation.[citation needed] Election to the Senate, by any of the mechanisms available, requires the candidate to meet the following requirements:[4]
Senators are elected for a six-year term, corresponding to two legislatures, and can be reelected only once for the immediate period.
They are elected in two ways: 96 in 32 three-seat constituencies based on the country's states and 32 in a nationwide constituency by proportional representation. In the three-seat constituencies, two seats are allocated to the party receiving the most votes (mayoría relativa) and one seat to the party receiving the second-highest votes (primera minoría).
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Party or alliance | Constituency | Party-list | Total seats | +/– | |||||||
Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||||
Sigamos Haciendo Historia | National Regeneration Movement | 7,526,453 | 13.19 | 21 | 24,484,943 | 42.48 | 14 | 60 | +5 | ||
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico | 2,298,726 | 4.03 | 4 | 5,357,959 | 9.30 | 3 | 14 | +8 | |||
Labor Party | 1,215,172 | 2.13 | 0 | 3,214,708 | 5.58 | 2 | 9 | +3 | |||
Common candidates[b] | 21,731,737 | 38.08 | 39 | – | – | ||||||
Total | 32,772,088 | 57.43 | 64 | 33,057,610 | 57.36 | 19 | 83 | +14 | |||
Fuerza y Corazón por México | National Action Party | 1,148,920 | 2.01 | 1 | 10,107,537 | 17.54 | 6 | 22 | –1 | ||
Institutional Revolutionary Party | 316,636 | 0.55 | 0 | 6,530,305 | 11.33 | 4 | 16 | +2 | |||
Party of the Democratic Revolution | 76,082 | 0.13 | 0 | 1,363,012 | 2.36 | 0 | 2 | –6 | |||
Common candidates[c] | 16,244,373 | 28.47 | 29 | – | – | ||||||
Total | 17,786,011 | 31.17 | 30 | 18,000,854 | 31.23 | 10 | 40 | +2 | |||
Citizens' Movement | 6,460,220 | 11.32 | 2 | 6,528,238 | 11.33 | 3 | 5 | –2 | |||
Non-registered candidates | 46,230 | 0.08 | 0 | 47,092 | 0.08 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Total | 57,064,549 | 100.00 | 96 | 57,633,794 | 100.00 | 32 | 128 | 0 | |||
Valid votes | 57,064,549 | 96.08 | 57,633,794 | 96.05 | |||||||
Invalid/blank votes | 2,326,742 | 3.92 | 2,369,932 | 3.95 | |||||||
Total votes | 59,391,291 | 100.00 | 60,003,726 | 100.00 | |||||||
Source: INE (PR) |
Its internal government has two main instances, namely:
To deal with legislative affairs, senators form commissions dedicated to a particular issue. The most important committees are interior, constitutional issues, defense, finance, and justice. Each senator belongs to at least three different commissions, and each committee elects a chair and two to five secretaries (according to the commission) to coordinate their work.
The two chambers of the Congress of the Union divide their work into two ordinary sessions, the first from 1 September to 15 December and the second from 1 February to 30 April; if necessary, special sessions may be convened to discuss urgent or pertinent matters.
The time between the regular sessions is known as recess. There are two recesses: 16 December to 31 January and 1 May to 31 August. During these breaks, the standing committee of the Congress of the Union is installed and serves as the legislature's depository. It comprises 37 members — 19 deputies and 18 senators — appointed by their respective chambers the day before the closing of the regular sessions.
The standing committee's sessions are held in the Senate during the first recess and in the Chamber of Deputies during the second recess.
Among the most important functions of the Senate is to ratify or reject the president's proposals regarding:[6]