Paraguay The Legislature
The Legislative Palace, site of meetings of the National
Congress
Courtesy Tim Merrill
Stroessner campaign posters, Asunción
Courtesy Tim Merrill
The National Congress is a bicameral legislature, consisting of
a popularly elected Senate and Chamber of Deputies. The
Constitution stipulates that the Senate have at least thirty
members and the Chamber of Deputies sixty, plus alternates. In the
1988 general elections, thirty-six senators and twenty-one
alternates were elected as well as seventy-two deputies and fortytwo alternates. The alternates serve in the place of the senators
or deputies in the case of death, resignation, or temporary
disability. The two houses meet in regular sessions every year from
April 1 to December 20. Special sessions may be convened outside
this period by the president, who may also extend the regular
sessions. Members of both houses must be native-born Paraguayans;
whereas deputies need be only twenty-five years of age, senators
must be at least forty. Members of the clergy and armed forces
officers on active duty may not be elected to the National
Congress. Also prohibited are those affiliated with a commercial
enterprise that operates a public service or has obtained a
concession from the government. Members of both houses are elected
for five-year terms coinciding with terms served by the president.
There is no restriction concerning reelection.
The functions of the National Congress are stipulated in the
twenty-one items of Article 149 and include the following: the
enactment, amendment, and repeal of laws; the establishment of
political divisions of the country and municipal organizations; the
authorization for contracting loans in connection with banking,
currency, and exchange matters; the annual enactment of the
national budget; the approval or rejection of treaties,
conventions, and other international agreements; the granting of
amnesty; the formulation of electoral laws; and the approval,
modification, or refusal of decree laws. The Senate and Chamber of
Deputies have different specific functions. The former deals
primarily with the ratification of treaties and national defense,
the approval of nominations to other organs, and, on the initiative
of the Chamber, the judgment of members of the Supreme Court of
Justice for possible removal from office. The Chamber is concerned
primarily with fiscal or tax issues and bills concerning electoral
and municipal matters.
The Constitution, in articles 168 through 170, provides for a
Standing Committee of the National Congress. Before adjourning in
December, the National Congress appoints from among its members six
senators and twelve deputies to act until the following session as
the Standing Committee. This committee elects its own officers and
may conduct a valid session with the presence of a simple majority
of its members. The Standing Committee has the power to ensure that
the Constitution and its laws are observed; to receive the returns
on the election of the president, senators, and deputies and pass
them on to the National Congress; to convoke sessions to examine
election returns on senators and deputies so that the National
Congress may meet at the proper time; and to exercise any other
powers assigned to it by the Constitution.
All bills submitted to the National Congress by the executive
are discussed and acted upon in the same session, unless they have
been returned because of lack of time to consider them. If the
executive objects to a bill or part of a bill, it is returned to
the chamber of origin, which studies the objections and states its
judgment. When this action has been taken, the bill is sent to the
other chamber for the same purpose. If both chambers uphold the
original sanction by an absolute majority vote, the executive
branch must promulgate it. If the two chambers disagree on the
objections, however, the bill is not reconsidered in that session
of the National Congress. Any bill completely rejected by the
executive may be considered again at the same session of the
National Congress only by an affirmative vote of a two-thirds
majority of both chambers. In that case, the bill is reconsidered,
and, if an absolute majority is obtained again in the two chambers,
it is promulgated by the executive. If a bill that has been
approved by one chamber is totally rejected by the other, it
returns to the former for reconsideration. If the chamber of origin
ratifies it by an absolute majority, it goes again to the chamber
that reviews it, and that body can reject it again only by a twothirds absolute majority. If such a majority has not been obtained,
the bill is considered sanctioned. If the chamber that reviews a
bill approved by the chamber of origin does not act upon it within
three months, that chamber is considered to have given the bill a
favorable vote, and it is forwarded to the executive to be
promulgated.
In practice, the legislature is controlled tightly by the
executive. The president sets the legislative agenda and provides
most of the bills considered by the National Congress. When the
National Congress passes one of the bills submitted by the
executive, it does so in general terms as a broad grant of power,
leaving it to the executive to "issue rules and instructions" for
the law's application. In addition, an executive that encounters a
hostile legislative can dissolve it by claiming a constitutional
crisis. Although the president must call for new elections within
three months, in the interim he can rule by decree. During the
congressional recess, the executive also rules by decree, although
the National Congress subsequently may review the president's
actions. The president also may extend the congressional session or
call an extraordinary session. In addition, the president's annual
budget takes priority over all other legislation; it must be
debated within one month, and it can be rejected only by an
absolute majority of both houses.
In addition to constitutionally based limits on the National
Congress, the legislature also was constrained by Stroessner's
tight control of the ruling Colorado Party. Stroessner supervised
personally the selection of the party's legislative candidates.
Because the Colorado Party won a majority of votes in each of the
five elections between 1968 and 1988, it received a two-thirds
majority of congressional seats under the governing electoral law,
thus ensuring a compliant legislature for Stroessner. Although
opposition parties could use the National Congress as a forum to
question and criticize Stroessner's policies, they were unable to
affect the outcome of government decisions.
Data as of December 1988
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