Legislative branch:
bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la Union consists of the Senate or Camara de Senadores (128 seats; 96 members are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms, and 32 seats are allocated on the basis of each party's popular vote) and the Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (500 seats; 300 members are elected by popular vote; remaining 200 members are allocated on the basis of each party's popular vote; to serve three-year terms)
elections: Senate - last held 2 July 2006 for all of the seats (next to be held 1 July 2012); Chamber of Deputies - last held 2 July 2006 (next to be held 5 July 2009)
election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PAN 52, PRI 33, PRD 26, PVEM 6, CD 5, PT 5, independent 1; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PAN 207, PRD 127, PRI 106, PVEM 17, CD 17, PT 11, other 15
Judicial branch:
Supreme Court of Justice or Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nacion (justices or ministros are appointed by the president with consent of the Senate)
Political parties and leaders:
Convergence for Democracy or CD [Luis MALDONADO Venegas];
Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI [Beatriz PAREDES]; Labor
Party or PT [Alberto ANAYA Gutierrez]; Mexican Green Ecological
Party or PVEM [Jorge Emilio GONZALEZ Martinez]; National Action
Party (Partido Accion Nacional) or PAN [German MARTINEZ Cazares];
New Alliance Party (Partido Nueva Alianza) or PNA [Jorge Antonio
KAHWAGI Macari]; Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la
Revolucion Democratica) or PRD [Leonel COTA Montano]; Social
Democratic and Peasant Alternative Party (Partido Alternativa
Socialdemocrata y Campesina) or Alternativa [Alberto BEGNE Guerra]
Political pressure groups and leaders:
Broad Progressive Front or FAP; Businessmen's Coordinating Council
or CCE; Confederation of Employers of the Mexican Republic or
COPARMEX; Confederation of Industrial Chambers or CONCAMIN;
Confederation of Mexican Workers or CTM; Confederation of National
Chambers of Commerce or CONCANACO; Coordinator for Foreign Trade
Business Organizations or COECE; Federation of Unions Providing
Goods and Services or FESEBES; National Chamber of Transformation
Industries or CANACINTRA; National Peasant Confederation or CNC;
National Small Business Chamber or CANACOPE; National Syndicate of
Education Workers or SNTE; National Union of Workers or UNT; Popular
Assembly of the People of Oaxaca or APPO; Roman Catholic Church