User:Krisgabwoosh/Potosí delegation

Department's delegation to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly of Bolivia is comprised of four members of the Chamber of Senators and x members of the Chamber of Deputies, in addition to one representative before supranational parliamentary organizations, as well as their respective substitutes.

Each department elects four senators at-large to serve five-year terms, chosen through party-list proportional representation using the D'Hondt method. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are also elected to five-year terms: half are apportioned from a slate of party-list candidates using the same system outlined previously, while the other half are directly elected from each of department's x single-member circumscriptions. Additionally, department's minority indigenous peoples are entitled to elect their own representative to the Chamber of Deputies, and each department is also granted one representative before supranational legislatures, allocated based on the political force that won the most votes in the region.

Both senators and deputies are elected alongside an accompanying substitute, who may vote in their absence, vote in commissions and committees, and assume their counterpart's seat in the event of a vacancy. As a product of the state-mandated gender quota, all primary and substitute legislators must maintain one-to-one gender parity, meaning every male parliamentarian has a female substitute and vice versa.

The longest-serving of any of department's assemblymen is name, serving from date to date. The longest-serving senator is name, who served from date to date, and the longest-serving deputy is name, who served from date to date. There have been number people who have represented department in the Legislative Assembly: number in the Chamber of Deputies, number in the Senate, and number in both chambers. The youngest member to represent department was name, who entered office at age number; the eldest member, name, left office at age number.

Senate
Potosí is represented in the Senate by four senators, elected at-large on a closed party list, allocated proportionally using the D'Hondt method. Unlike in the lower chamber, the number of senators representing each department is static, although the base amount was increased from three to four following the enactment of the 2009 Constitution, and, as such, the Senate has had thirty-six members since 2010.

Chamber of Deputies
Potosí is represented in the Chamber of Deputies by thirteen legislators: roughly half, six, are apportioned at-large from a closed party list, allocated proportionally using the D'Hondt method, while the other half are directly elected from each of the department's seven single-member circumscriptions using a first-past-the-post voting system. The Constitution of Bolivia establishes a principle of equity in the redistribution of seats, which in practice grants a minimum number of four seats to the six departments with the lowest population and level of economic development. As the department with the lowest score on the Human Development Index, Potosí's minimum seat count has been raised from four to five. At the same time, Potosí is one of just two departments, alongside Chuquisaca, that lacks a special rural native indigenous circumscription reserved for its minority indigenous peoples.

Constituency boundaries are determined by the Plurinational Electoral Organ, an independent body that periodically rearticulates the size of each circumscription based on the most recent census data; these changes must be approved by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly. Potosí's seven circumscriptions were delimited based on population data from the 2012 census and were first contested in the 2014 general election. The department has two urban districts and five rural districts. Of the urban districts, circumscription 33 encompasses the main areas within the city of Potosí's center core, while circumscription 34 is more split, containing the rest of the urban municipality and the more rural Frías Province that surrounds it. Circumscription 35, meanwhile, holds the eastern provinces of Linares and Saavedra. Circumscription 36 is the largest in extent and has the most provinces, containing the regions of Baldivieso, Campos, Nor Chichas, Nor Lípez, Quijarro, while further south, circumscription 37 holds Omiste, Sur Chichas, and Sur Lípez. Finally, in the north, circumscriptions 38 and 39 are made up of the Bilbao, Charcas, Ibáñez and Bustillo and Chayanta provinces, respectively.

1979–1980
The term of office of this legislature was cut short by a coup d'état on 17 July 1980.

1982–1985
The term of office of this legislature was shortened by one year.

1997–2002
First election with direct elections in single-member circumscriptions.

2002–2006
First legislature with five-year terms rather than four. The term of office of this legislature was was shortened by two years.

2006–2010
The term of office of this legislature was shortened by one year.

2010–2015
This delegation was the first to be elected under the parameters of the newly-drafted 2009 Constitution, which constitutes the Plurinational Legislative Assembly as the supreme legislative body of the state, superseding the functions of the previous National Congress—although, in practice, both entities operate effectively the same attributes and competencies. The new parliament preserved the existing bicameral system, with the key addition of one permanent seat in each chamber. In the Senate, the number of seats allocated to each department was increased, and the electoral system was changed from one of top-two majoritarian representation to one of proportional representation. In the Chamber of Deputies, an additional seat reserved for constituents pertaining to Oruro's minority indigenous peoples was established.

2015–2020
The term of office of this legislature was extended by one year.

This legislature saw the introduction of representatives before supranational parliamentary organizations. Each department elects a single supranational representative at-large, allocated based on the regional presidential result in the same manner as senators and party-list deputies. The new delegates superseded and democratized a function historically entrusted to parliament; in prior legislatures, the Senate and Chamber of Deputies had been charged with designating assembly members from among their own ranks to represent the country before international bodies. Although marginally separate from both legislative chambers, the supranational representatives are administratively and financially dependent on the Chamber of Deputies.