Congreso Termal

Congreso Termal (Spanish for "Thermal Congress") was the name commonly given to the National Congress of Chile during its XXXVI Legislative Period, which lasted from 1930 to 1932. It was formed without a competitive parliamentary election after the political parties agreed at the Termas de Chillán to allow President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo to determine the allocation of parliamentary seats and the lists of candidates. Because the number of officially registered candidates did not exceed the number of seats to be filled, Chile's electoral law allowed the Election Certification Tribunal to proclaim the candidates elected without a popular vote.

The name derives from the Termas de Chillán, where the leaders of the principal political parties agreed to the arrangement with Ibáñez. The Interior Minister, Enrique Bermúdez de la Paz, acted as an intermediary in allocating seats among the parties. The Chamber of Deputies had 133 seats, all of which were filled through the arrangement, while 20 of the Senate's 45 seats were renewed. The Radical Party received 36 Chamber seats, the United Liberal Party 32, the Democratic Party 27, the Conservative Party 24, and the Confederación Republicana de Acción Cívica de Obreros y Empleados de Chile (CRAC) 14.

Background

Ibáñez's government exercised increasingly authoritarian control over Chilean political life. Opposition politicians were imprisoned, exiled, or otherwise persecuted, while the government sought cooperation from established political parties and organizations willing to operate within its political system.

Parliamentary elections were scheduled for 2 March 1930. Rather than risk an electoral contest that could strengthen opponents of the government, the leaders of the established parties agreed at the Termas de Chillán to an arrangement under which the candidates and the distribution of seats would be settled without a contested election. The resulting agreement allowed Ibáñez to exert decisive influence over the composition of Congress.

The legal basis for avoiding a contested election was not created specifically for the Congreso Termal. The electoral law of 1925 contained provisions for elections "without contest": where the number of officially declared candidates did not exceed the number of seats to be filled in a constituency, the Election Certification Tribunal could proclaim those candidates elected without proceeding to a vote. A contemporary La Nación report identified Article 18 of the electoral law as the provision being used to avoid an electoral contest in 1930.

Formation

On 3 February 1930, the Electoral Registrar announced the political organizations authorized to submit parliamentary candidates. They included the Conservative, United Liberal, Radical, and Democratic parties and the CRAC. Several other organizations seeking to submit candidates were not authorized to participate under the electoral rules then in force.

On 14 February, the Interior Minister announced the candidates agreed upon by the parties, and the lists were registered the following day. Since the number of candidates did not exceed the number of seats to be filled, no competitive vote was held on 2 March. The Tribunal Calificador de Elecciones subsequently proclaimed the candidates elected on 9 April 1930.

The new Congress opened on 21 May 1930. It constituted the XXXVI Legislative Period of the National Congress.

Composition

Chamber of Deputies

All 133 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were filled through the non-competitive process. The distribution reported by the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional was:

Party Seats Radical Party 36 United Liberal Party 32 Democratic Party 27 Conservative Party 24 CRAC 14 Total 133

The Radical Party was the largest parliamentary group, followed by the United Liberal Party, Democratic Party, Conservative Party, and CRAC. The CRAC was associated with the Ibáñez government, while the other four parties were established political organizations that had participated in the agreement at the Termas de Chillán.

Senate

The Senate had 45 seats in total, of which 20 were renewed in 1930. The remaining senators continued their terms under the eight-year Senate terms established by the constitutional system of the period.

The 20 senators whose seats were renewed were also proclaimed elected without a competitive popular vote under the same legal mechanism used for the Chamber of Deputies.

Leadership

The congressional leadership reflected the party arrangement created in 1930. Pedro Opazo Letelier, a leader of the United Liberal Party, served as president of the Senate from 1930 until March 1932, when he was succeeded by Radical senator Alberto Cabero Díaz.

In the Chamber of Deputies, Radical deputy Arturo Montecinos Rozas served as president from 22 May 1930 to 30 November 1931. He was succeeded by fellow Radical Littré Quiroga Arenas, who remained president until the dissolution of Congress on 6 June 1932.

Relationship with the executive

The Congreso Termal initially worked within the political system established by Ibáñez. One of the most significant examples of congressional cooperation with the executive came in 1931, when Congress enacted Law No. 4,945. The law authorized the President to issue legal provisions of an administrative or economic nature until 21 May of that year.

Scholar Bernardino Bravo Lira has examined the episode as an important example in the development of legislative delegation under the 1925 constitutional regime.

The Congreso Termal survived the resignation of Ibáñez in July 1931. His successor, Juan Esteban Montero, did not call new parliamentary elections, and the Congress therefore remained in existence despite the change of government.

Dissolution

Political instability intensified in 1932 amid the economic crisis and a succession of governments. On 4 June, a military and political movement overthrew Montero and established the Socialist Republic. Two days later, on 6 June, the new government ordered the dissolution of the National Congress, ending the Congreso Termal after roughly two years.

The dissolution was followed by further political upheaval. After the fall of the Socialist Republic and the governments that succeeded it, parliamentary elections were held again on 30 October 1932, restoring a competitive electoral process for the National Congress.

Congreso Termal

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