Plurinational Legislative Assembly


The Plurinational Legislative Assembly is the national legislature of Bolivia, placed in La Paz, the country's seat of government.
The assembly is bicameral, consisting of a lower house and an upper house . The Vice President of Bolivia also serves as the ex officio President of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly. Each house elects its own directorate: a President, first and second Vice Presidents, and three or four Secretaries. Each party is said to have a seat consisting of its legislators. The representatives of each department comprise a brigade. Each house considers legislation in standing committees.
The Chamber of Senators has 36 seats. Each of the country's nine departments returns four senators elected by proportional representation. Senators are elected from party lists to serve five-year terms, and the minimum age to hold a Senate seat is 35 years.
The Chamber of Deputies comprises 130 seats, elected using a seat linkage based mixed compensatory system : 70 deputies are elected to represent single-member electoral districts, 7 of which are Indigenous or Campesino seats elected by the usos y costumbres of minority groups, 60 are elected from party lists on a departmental basis. Deputies also serve five-year terms, and must be aged at least 25 on the day of the election. Party lists are required to alternate between men and women, and in the single-member districts, men are required to run with a female alternate, and vice versa. At least 50% of the deputies from single-member districts are required to be women.
Both the Chamber of Senators, and the proportional part of the Chamber of Deputies is elected based on the vote for the presidential candidates, while the deputies from the single-member districts are elected separately.
The legislative body was formerly known as the National Congress''.

Buildings

The two chambers of Congress meet in the legislative palace located on Plaza Murillo, La Paz's main city-centre square. Plaza Murillo is also flanked by the presidential palace and the cathedral of Nuestra Señora de La Paz. Prior to becoming the seat of the legislature in 1904, the congress building had, at different times, housed a convent and a university.
The Vice-President, in his capacity as President of Congress, has an imposing suite of offices on Calle Mercado in central La Paz. The building, designed by Emilio Villanueva, was erected during the 1920s and was originally intended to serve as the headquarters of Bolivia's central bank. Under Jaime Paz Zamora's 1989-1993 presidency, the building was reassigned to the vice-presidency, but the vice-presidential staff did not relocate entirely until major reconstruction and renovation work, starting in 1997, had been carried out. The Library of Congress and the National Congressional Archive are also located on the premises.

Members

Chamber of Deputies

  • List of members of the Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia, 1997–2002
  • List of members of the Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia, 2002–2005
  • List of members of the Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia, 2005–2009

    Senate

  • List of members of the Chamber of Senators of Bolivia, 1997–2002
  • List of members of the Chamber of Senators of Bolivia, 2002–2005
  • List of members of the Chamber of Senators of Bolivia, 2005–2009