Continuity in Legislatures: Chile

Adriana Muñoz D’Albora (@_adrianamunoz), President of the Senate of Chile, describes how the country’s legislature is responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

Key Takeaways:

• For plenary sessions and committee meetings, Chile’s Senate has adopted a mixed system where a few members are present in the chamber while most join remotely.
• This mixed system uses Zoom for videoconferencing along with a separate application, developed by the Senate’s IT department, to manage the sessions.
• Since the remote system was adopted in March, the Senate has used it to pass eight pieces of legislation, including social, economic, and labor regulations related to the pandemic.
• President D’Albora plans for the remote system to remain in place after the crisis so that it can become a regular part of how the Senate operates.
• According to President D’Albora, the remote system has built optimism among lawmakers, and demonstrated to citizens that the Parliament is actively working to address their concerns.

This post is part of a series on the Continuity of Legislatures. Find the whole series here.