Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Argentina	The president is elected for a four-year term with the possibility of one sucessive term. If none of the candidates receives 45% or more of the votes in the first round of voting, a second round is held.	Bicameral Congress. The 257 deputies are elected for four-year terms and may be re-elected. Half of the Chamber of Deputies is renewed every two years. The 48 senators are elected a ccording to procedure established in local provincial constitutions. One third of the Senate is renewed every two years.	Governors and local authorities are elected according to the 25 provincial constitutions.	In December of 1983, Argentina returned to a democracy and since then has had free and fair democratic elections. In April 1994, elections were held to form a Constituent Assembly. The Assembly modified the 1953 Constitution with several reforms, including reduction of the president's term -- from six to four years, with the possibility of of a second term -- and the adoption of a second round of voting if no candidate receives a majority in the first round. In addition, the reforms abolished the electoral college system.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Bolivia	Beginning in 1997, the president will be elected for a five-year term without the possibility of consecutive re-election. The president may run for office again after one term has passed. If no candidate receiv es a majority, the Congress chooses the president from amogn the top three candidates in a secret ballot.	Bicameral Congress. The 130 deputies and 27 senators are elected for five-year terms without the possibility of re-election.	Bolivia is divided into departments and there is one prefecto (governor) per department. The prefectos are elected for five-year terms and have general executive powers. Municipal councils, which in tur n elect mayors, are elected every two years. Mayors are elected for five-year terms.	Two successive Congresses must pass the same bill in order to reform the Constitution. Many reforms to the Constitution were passed in August of 1994: the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 years and the terms of office for the president and both houses of Congress were increased from four to five years. Bolivia is also in a process of decentralization. In April 1994, a "popular participation" law was passed which gave local governments more control over their communities. In December of 1995, reforms were passed to give more power to the prefects of th e departments
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Brazil	The president is elected for a four-year term without the possibility of re-election. If none of the candidates receives a majority in the first round of voting, a second round is held.	Bicameral Congress. The 513 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected from party lists for four-year terms and may be re-elected. When elections are held, all of the 513 seats are up for election at the same time. The 81 senators are elected to serve eight-year terms and may be re-elected. Two-thirds of the Senate is renewed at one time and four years later the remaining one-third is renewed. In 1994, two-thirds of the Senate was renewed and in 19 98 the remaining one-third will be up for renewal. Members of both houses are elected by a system of proportional representation.	All state legislators and governors are elected for four-year terms. Mayors and city council authorities are directly elected for four-year terms.	In 1993, a popular referendum was held to choose among moving to a parliamentary system, returning to a monarchy, or keeping the presidential system. A great majority of those people who voted supported the existing presidential system. In 1994, an amendment to the Constitution reduced the term of the president from five to four years. 1994 marked the second presidential election held in Brazil since the end of military rule.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Chile	The president is elected of a six-year term with no possibility of re-election. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, a second round of voting is held.	Bicameral Congress. There are 120 members of the Chamber of Deputies. They are elected from party lists for four-year terms and may be re-elected. There are 46 members of the Senate. The senators are elected for eight-year terms and may be re-elected. Every four years half of the senate seats are renewed. Thirty-eight of the 46 senators are elected and eight are appointed. Of the eight senator s who are appointed, three are selected by the armed forces, two by the president, two by the Supreme Court, and one by the National Security Council. All are appointed for eight-year terms. In addition to the eight senator who are appointed, all former presidents are automatically members of the Senate. In 1989, all 38 of the senate were elected. Eighteen of the 38 were elected for four-year terms. The remainign 20 elected in 1989 are serving full eight-years terms which end in 1997.	Chile is divided into regions with one intendente (governor) per region. Intendentes are appointed by the president for a six-year term and may be replaced at any time during their tenure. The last in tendentes were appointed in March 1994. The next appointments will be made by the new president in March 2000. Municipal authorities are directly elected for four-year terms and apoint the mayors.	In October 1988, a plebiscite defeat ended Pinochet's military dictatorship. In July 1989, a referendum approved sixty-four reforms to the Constitution. The measures increased the number of directly elected senators from 26 to 38, reduced the president's term from eight to six years, and prohibited re-election of the president. In November 1991, Congress approved constitutional changes to local government that provide for the replacement of centrally appointed local officials with directly elected representatives. Tensions with the military continue, and the executive does not have full power over military affairs. For example, the military is constitutionally subordinate to the president through the defense minister, but the president must have approval of the military's National Security Council to remove service chiefs.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Colombia	The president is elected for a four-year term without the possibility of re-election. If none of the candidates receives a majority of votes in the first round of voting, a second round of voting is held.	Bicameral Congress. The 161 members of the House of Representatives and the 102 members of the Senate are elected for four-year terms and may not be re-elected to consecutive terms.	Governors are elected for four year-terms. Since 1988, mayors have been elected for two-year terms.	In July 1991, the new Constitution was approved which granted rights to minorities and introduced many political reforms aimed at decentralizing authority. In May 1994, vice presidential elections were held for the first time. I ndigenous peoples have been allotted two seats in the Senate.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Costa Rica	The president is elected for a four-year term without the possibility of re-election. If one candidate receives more than 40% of the vote, no second round voting is held.	Unicameral Congress. The 61 members of the National Assembly are elected for four-years and may not be re-elected for consecutive terms.	Governors are named by the president for four-year terms. Municipal authorities are elected for four-year terms.	Elections have been free and democratic in Costa Rica since 1949.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Dominican Republic	The president is elected for a four-year term without the possibility of consecutive re-election. The president may run for office again after one term has passed. If none of the candidates receives a majority of the votes, a second round of voting is held.	Bicameral Congress. There are 120 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 30 members of the Senate. All members of Congress are elected for four-year terms and may be re-elected.	The governors of the 29 provinces are appointed by the president. The síndico (mayor) of each province is elected. Both serve four-year terms.	In May 1994, the Dominican Central Electoral Board declared President Balaguer the winner in a contest international observers cited as plagued by "serious problems and irregularities" which may have affected its out come. PRD opposition candidate Francisco Peña Gómez officially lost by only 22,000 votes. After lengthy negotiations between parties and candidates, Congress reduced President Balaguer's term to two yeats and prohibited the consecutive re-election of fu ture presidents. In May 1996, first round presidential elections were held. José Francisco Peña Gómez won 46% of the vote, Leonél Fernández 39% and Vice-President Jacinto Peynado won 15%. None of the candidates received a majority, so a run-off election was held on Ju ne 30, 1996 between Fernández and Peña Gómez. Fernández who was formally endorsed by President Balaguer and former President Juan Bosch, was elected president with 51.25% of the vote.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Ecuador	The president is elected for a four-year term without the possibility of consecutive re-election. The president may run for office again after one term has passed. If no candidate receives a majority, a second round o f voting is held.	Unicameral Congress. The 82 deputies of the Chamber of National Representatives are elected by a system of proportional representation. There are 12 national deputies who are elected for four-year terms at the na tional level and there are 70 provincial deputies who are elected for two-year terms at the provincial level. All deputies may be re-elected.	Governors are appointed by the president for two-year terms. Municipal authorities are elected for four-year terms.	In May 1996, congressional eelections were held and the Social Christian Party won a majority in Congress. A party representing the indigenous groups in Ecuador also won six seats. Prior to 1995, two constitutional reforms passed which have influenced the election of the president. The first reform revokes a previous law, which required that candidates for political office must belong to a political party, now allowing independen ts to run for any office. The second reform allows the president to run for re-election after one term has passed, which means that President Durán-Ballén may run for a second four-year term in the year 2000. In May 1996, the first-round presidential elections were held. None of the candidates received a majority of the votes, so a run-off election between Abdalá Bucaram and Jaime Nebot was held on July 7, 1996. Bucaram was elected president with 54% of th e vote.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
El Salvador	The president is elected for a five-year term without the possibility of consecutive re-election. If none of the candidates receives a majority of the votes, a second round of voting is held.	Unicameral Congress. The 84 members of the National Assembly are elected for three-year terms and may be re-elected.	The Office of the Governor does not exist. At the municipal level, local authorities are elected for three-year terms.	In 1994, national and international observers judged the elections as having been generally free, fair, and non-violent despite some irregularities. The former guerrilla movement Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) participated as a political party in the elections in alliance with reformist groups and it became the second-largest political group in Congress; however it did poorly in local elections. The ARENA won a landslide victory.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Guatemala	The president is elected for a four-year term without the possibility of re-election. If none of the candidates receives a majority of the votes, a second round of voting is held	Unicameral Congress. The 80 members of Congress are elected by proportional representation. The candidates are elected by a national and a departmental list procedure. Of the 80 candidates in the last election , 16 were elected from the national lists and 64 were elected from the departmental lists. Votes are cast separately fro the national and departmental lists.	Governors are appointed by the president. The duration of their terms is also decided by the president. At present, elections are being considered as an alternative mechanism for the selection of governors. Mayors are directly elected for terms of four years.	In 1993, former President Jorge Serrano was constitutionally deposed after he attempted to seize full power. As a result of the crisis Congress elected Ramiro de León Carpio to be president and finish out Serrano's term. In 1994, the president held congressional elections and presented a referendum of constitutional changes to the Guatemalan people. The level of voter participation in the referendum was extremely low, but the constitutional reforms were approved. Thes e reforms reduced the president's term from five to four years and the number of deputies in Congress from 116 to 80. The new president is likely to propose decentralization laws that may allow elections for governors.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Honduras	The president is elected for a four-year term during one round of voting and may not be re-elected.	Unicameral Congress. The 134 members are elected for four-year terms and may be re-elected. Members of Congress are elected on a proportional basis, according to votes cast for the presidential candidate of t heir party.	Governors are appointed for four-year terms. Municipal authorities are elected for four-year terms.	November 1993 marked the fourth consecutive election of a civilian president since 1982 when Honduras returned to civilian rule. In January 1995, the police force came under the direction of the civil government while the techni cal judicial police (i.e., federal investigative police) came under the direction of the Attorney General. In May 1995, an all-volunteer military was put in place which ended forced conscription. In addition to these changes, many judicial changes are a lso under way.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
México	The president is elected for a six-year term and may not be re-elected. There is only one round of voting.	Bicameral Congress. The 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies are directly elected for three years; 300 are elected from single-member constituencies and 200 chosen under a system of proportional representation. The majority party will hold no more than 300 seats. At the present time there are three senators for each state; however, in 1994, a six-year period of transition began which will culminate in the formation of a new system for electing senators by the year 2000. This new system will guarantee that at le ast 25% of the seats in the Senate will belong to members of minority parties. In the 1994 Senate elections in each state, the two candidates who received the most votes were elected to be senators and a third senate seat was given to the minority party in that state which obtained the most votes. All of the senators elected in 1 994 are now serving six-year terms. In the 1997 mid-term elections, a fourth senator from each state will be elected for a three-year term. In the year 2000, elections will be held and three senators will be elected by direct vote in each state and a fourth senator will be allotted to the majority opposition party within the state.	Governors are elected for six-year terms according to the organization and calendar of each state. The Constitution allows for the replacement of governors by re-election during the first two years of their terms and b y presidential appointment after that time. Municipal authorities are elected for three-year terms. The mayor of the Federal District will be elected, not appointed, for the first time in 1997.	The official party, the PRI, has won every presidential election since 1929. Measures have been taken in Mexcio to open up the elctoral process to other political parties. In recen years, through the reforms to the Mexican Congress in late 1993, as well as the creation of the autonomous Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) to oversee federal elections, opposition parties have steadily expanded their representation in the political system. The 1994 elections were seen as critical because prior to the election the country was plagued by a series of crises, including the assassination of the PRI presiential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio. For the first time, the Mexican government asked th e United Nations to train Mexican electoral monitors. The PRI candidate, Ernesto Zedillo, defeated the PAN candidate Diego Fernández and the PRD candidate Cuauhtémco Cárdenas in the 1994 election. The election was generally regarded as free.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Nicaragua	The current president was elected for a six-year term and may not run for re-election. The next president will hold a five-year term. If none of the candidates receives 45% or more of the vote, a second round of votin g will be held.	Unicameral Congress.The 92 members of the National Assembly were elected for six-year terms by proportional representation and may be re-elected. The next members elected to the National Assembly will be elected for five-year terms.	The Office of Governor does not exist in Nicaragua except in the autonomous Atlantic and South Atlantic regions. Elections were held ther in March 1993. Municipal authorities will be elected for five-year terms.	The UNO coalition, once consisting of 14 parties, no longer exists in Congress. In March 1994, Congress reduced the future terms of the president, members of Congress and mayors from six years to five years. Congress has also prohibitied the election of the president's close relatives. President Chamorro's nephew, Antonio Lacayo, has challenged this restriction. In 1996, the new Liberal Alliance coalition will support the main presidential candidate, Arnoldo Alemán, the former mayor of Managua.
Panamá	The president is elected for a five-year term and may not be re-elected. There is only one round of voting; the candidate who receives a plurality of the votes becomes president.	Unicameral Congress. The 72 members of the National Assembly are elected for five-year terms.	Governors of the nine provinces are named by the president and may be removed at any time. Municipal authorities are also appointed by the president and serve five-year terms.	On May 8, 1994 Ernesto Pérez Balladares of the PRD defeated Mireya Moscoso, widow of former President Arnulfo Arias of the Arnulfista Party, and salsa singer Rubén Blades of the Papá Egoró Party. International observers found the elections to be free, fair and non-violent. President Pérez Balladares will preside over the crucial transition period of the Panamá Canal and thousands of acres of prime land which are scheduled to be handed over to the Government of Panamá by the Unit ed States by the year 2000.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Paraguay	The president is elected for a five-year term and may not be re-elected. If no candidate receives a majority in the first round of voting, a second round is held.	Bicameral Congress. The 80 deputies and 45 senators are elected for five-year terms and may be re-elected.	Governors are elected for five-year terms. Municipal authorities are elected for five-year terms.	In February 1989, the overthrow of General Alfredo Stroessner initiated a transition to democracy in Paraguay. The elections of May 1993 were the first free and uncontested elections with an all-civilian slate of c andidates since 1928. On June 20, 1992 a new Constitution was approved that created the Office of the Vice-President and prohibits the president and vice-president from succeeding themselves. The Constitution also established an Electoral Tribunal which is headed by three M inisters of Electoral Justice who must be confirmed by Congress. Municipal authorities are now elected and no longer appointed by the president. All parties reached a decision by consensus to postpone the municipal elections until the end of 1996 in orde r to give the new Electoral Tribunal adequate time to prepare for the elections. In April 1996, the commander of the armed forces, General Lino César Oviedo attempted an unsuccessful coup détat. Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and the United States responded with strong support for President Wasmosy. In addition, the Paraguayan people protested the General's attempt by supporting the President.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Perú	The president is elected for a five-year term and may be re-elected for a consecutive five-year term. If no candidate receives a majority in the first round of voting, a second round is held.	Unicameral Congress. The 120 members of Congress are elected for five-year terms and may be re-elected.	The Office of Governor does not exist. The Constitution of 1993 dissolved regional government. Perú is organized into departments and its authorities are named by the president. Municipal authorities are elected for a three-year term.	In April 1992, President Fujimori dissolved Congress and called for new congressional elections. The new 80-member Congerss served for two years and drafted a new Constitution which was approved by a nationwide referendum in Oct ober 1993 by 52% of the people who voted. The new Constitution dissolved regional government and created a larger 120-member unicameral Congress. The new Constitution also permits the president to run for re-election.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Uruguay	The president is elected by a party list procedure for a five-year term without the possibility of consecutive re-election. The president may run for office again after one term has passed. There is one round of voting in the election.	Bicameral Congress. The 99 deputies and 30 senators are elected by a system of proportional representation for five-year terms and may be re-elected.	Governors and municipalities are elected for five-year terms.	Since the end of military rule in 1985 three presidents have been elected. In May 1996, the Senate voted on an amendment to the Constitution which will change the process of electing the presidnt by including a primary election . This change has not yet been approved.
Country	Presidential System	Legislative System	Governors and Municipalities	General Electoral Information
Venezuela	The presient is elected for a five-year term and may run for office again after two presidential terms have passed. There is no second round of election for President.	Bicameral Congress. The 203 deputies and 53 senators are elected for five-year terms and may be re-elected. In 1993, half of the members of Congress were elected directly for the first time. The other half cont inues to be elected by a system of proportional representation. Many deputies and senators represent multiple parties.	Governors and municipal authorities are elected for a three-year term.	Venezuela has a long-standing history of democratic rule which bean in 1958; however in 1992 there wer two coup attempts and in 1993 President Carlos Andrés Pérez was impeached. In June 1994, the government under President Caldera suspended many constitutional freedoms in order to provide legal means to address the country's economic and financial crisis. Political guarantees, such as the freedom of travel within the country, have been reestablished, but the government is still legislating on most ecoomic matters by decree.