This Sunday, November 16, Chileans will go to the polls in the 2025 parliamentary elections. In the election held in parallel with the presidential election, 155 members of the House of Representatives will be elected. Partial elections will only be held in some regions of this South American country, and part of the Senate (23 senators) will also be renewed.
There are 1,096 House candidates and 125 Senate candidates registered for these elections, divided into five multi-party lists. Six political parties announced their names without agreement. And there are more than a dozen independents who don’t belong to any group.
How members of the House of Representatives and Senators are elected
Chile’s parliamentary elections are based on the D’Hondt system, a proportional system that allocates seats through electoral lists. Simply put, the list or sub-agreement with the most votes may elect one or more positions. This voting is done on a public list, so voters can mark their own candidates instead of the entire list. Agreement candidates who receive a large number of individual votes have the following options: drag Send it to colleagues in your list who have the lowest number of votes. In past elections, parliamentary candidates have won seats using this method even if they received less than 1% of the individual votes.
For parliamentary elections, the territory is divided into 28 districts, with a fixed number of positions elected depending on the density of the territory (some districts have 3 members, others 8). For senatorial elections, the territory is divided into 16 districts (some regions elect 2 senators, others up to 5 senators).
Which region elects senators?
Members of the House of Representatives have a four-year term and must run for consecutive parliamentary elections to maintain their positions. Since the Senate has a permanent term of eight years, renewals are carried out every election and are divided by region. The constituencies (regions) that must elect new senators this year are Arica and Parinacota, Tarapaca, Atacama, Valparaíso, Maule, La Araucanía and Aysén.
How many times can members of Congress be re-elected?
A law passed in 2020 established limits on re-election to multiple popularly elected offices in Chile. In the case of the legislature, members of the House of Representatives can run for three consecutive terms (maximum term of 12 years) and senators can run twice (maximum term of 16 years). The bill allows sitting members to wish to remain in Congress as candidates for the Senate, and vice versa. Parliamentary terms of office do not change even if electoral districts or constituencies are changed, so members cannot use this mechanism to extend their terms of office.
Who are the independent candidates outside the deal?
In voting for representatives and senators, voters will find a long list of candidates, separated by multiple agreements and sub-agreements marked by lists grouping political parties. These lists may also include candidates who are not affiliated with a political party, i.e. candidates who are running for election with the support of some political party. These candidates are known as independence within the agreement And they have programmatic and ideological commitments to the parties that support them. Other non-militant candidates are: independent person outside the agreementwhich applies to applicants who do not have a brand or support from any political field. These are traditionally placed at the end of the ballot and do not have logos associated with legalized political campaigns.
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