The Senate (Spanish: Cámara de Senadores or Senado) is the upper house of Mexico's bicameral Congress.

After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:

• Two for each of the 31 states and two for the Federal District elected under the principle of relative majority;
• One for each of the 31 states and one for the Federal District, assigned under the principle of first minority (i.e. awarded to the party who had won the second highest number of votes within the state or Federal District);
• Thirty-two national senators-at-large, divided among the parties in proportion to their share of the national vote.

In a senatorial race, each party nominates 2 candidates who run and are elected together by direct vote. The party of the 2 candidates that won the second hightest vote within the state or the Federal District then assigns a senator to occupy the third seat (first minority seat), according to the list of candidates that the party registered before the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE).

Party strengths in the Senate for the 2000-06 period stand as follows (figures as of January 2004):

• Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) = 58
• National Action Party (PAN) = 47
• Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) = 15
• Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) = 5
• Independent = 3
• Convergence = 0
• Labour Party = 0

External link

• Mexican Senate

Mexican Legislative Branch of Government | National legislatures | National upper houses

Senado de México | Kamer van Senatoren