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Politics of Chile takes place in a framework of a Presidential Representative Democratic Republic , whereby the President Of Chile is both Head Of State and Head Of Government , and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive Power is exercised by the government. Legislative Power is vested in both the Government and the two chambers of the National Congress . The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. EXECUTIVE BRANCH Chile elects its President by popular vote for a four-year term. The President appoints the cabinet. Michelle Bachelet won 53.5% of the vote in a run-off election on 15 January 2006 and was sworn in as President on March 11 2006 . Bachelet is a member of Chile's Socialist party (part of the Coalition Of Parties For Democracy ) and, under the past administration, served as Defense Minister since 2002, and previously as Health Minister. Former President Ricardo Lagos Escobar held this office from 11 March 2000 until 11 March 2006 . LEGISLATIVE BRANCH The bicameral National Congress ''(Congreso Nacional)'' consists of the Senate ''(Senado)'' and the Chamber Of Deputies ''(Cámara de Diputados).'' Chile's congressional elections are governed by a unique binomial system that rewards coalition slates. Each coalition can present two candidates for the two Senate and two lower-chamber seats apportioned to each chamber's electoral districts. Typically, the two largest coalitions split the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket outpolls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 does the winning coalition gain both seats. The political parties with the largest representation in the current Chilean Congress are the centrist Christian Democrat Party and the conservative Independent Democratic Union ''(Unión Demócrata Independiente)''. The Communist Party and the small Humanist Party failed to gain any seats in the 1997 elections. Elections are very labor intensive but efficient, and vote counting normally takes place the evening of the election day. One voting table, with a ballot-box each, is set up for at-most 200 names in the voting registry. Each table is manned by five people (''vocales de mesa'') from the same registry. Vocales have the duty to work as such during a cycle of elections, and can be penalized legally if they do not show up. A registered citizen can only vote after his identity has been verified at the table corresponding to his registry. Ballots are manually counted by the five vocales, after the table has closed, at least eight hours after opening, and the counting witnessed by representatives of all the parties who choose to have observers. The Senate is made up of 38 members elected from regions or subregions which serve eight-year staggered terms. The Chamber of Deputies has 120 members, who are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. The last congressional elections were held in December 11 2006 . The next congressional elections are scheduled for December 2009. The current Senate composition is as follows: 20 seats are held by the (UDI) and eight National Renewal (RN); and one independent leaning right. The current lower house — the Chamber of Deputies — contains 65 members of the governing coalition and 54 from the rightist opposition and one independent. Since 1987 the Congress operates in the port city of Valparaíso , about 110 kilometers (~70 mi.) northwest of the capital, Santiago . However some commissions are allowed to meet in other places, especially Santiago. Congressional members have tried repeatedly to relocate the Congress back to Santiago, where it operated until the 1973 , but have not been successful. The last attempt was in 2000, when the project was rejected by the Constitutional Court, because it allocated funds from the national budget, which, under the Chilean Constitution, is a privilege of the President. LEGAL SYSTEM Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court . The judges on the Supreme Court or Corte Suprema are appointed by the president and ratified by the Senate from lists of candidates provided by the court itself. The president of the Supreme Court is elected by the 21-member court. Chile's legal system is Civil Law based. It is primarily based on the Civil Code of 1855, derived from Spanish law and subsequent codes influenced by European law of the last half of the 19th Century . Chile provides for a very limited judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court. It does not accept compulsory ICJ jurisdiction. From the year 2000 onward, Chile completely overhauled its criminal justice system; a new, US-style adversarial system has been gradually implemented throughout the country with the final stage of implementation in the Santiago metropolitan region completed on June 17th, 2005. POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS See Also: Chilean presidential election, 2005 See Also: Chilean parliamentary election, 2005 call me 056/20/12/63 PRESSURE GROUPS
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION PARTICIPATION Chile or Chilean organizations participate in the following international organizations: EXTERNAL LINKS ''All sites are in Spanish.''
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