Political Constitution of Colombia (1991)

The House of Representatives shall be elected in territorial and special constituencies.

Each department and the Capital District of Bogotá will form part of a territorial constituency. There will be two representatives for each territorial constituency and an additional one for each 365,000 inhabitants or a fraction greater than 182,500 over the first 365,000. The territorial constituency formed by the department of San Andres, Providencia, and Santa Catalina will elect an additional (1) representative for the Raizal community of the said department, according to the law.

For the election of representatives to the House, each department and the Capital District of Bogotá shall constitute a territorial constituency.

The special constituencies will guarantee the participation of ethnic groups and Colombians that reside abroad in the House of Representatives. Through these constituencies, there will be the election of four (4) representatives distributed as follows: two (2) for the constituency of the Afro-descendant communities, one (1) for the constituency of the indigenous communities, and one (1) for the international constituency. In this last constituency, only those votes deposited outside of the national territory by citizens that reside abroad will be counted.

Beginning in 2014, the assignment of additional seats shall be based on the corresponding proportional increase of the national population, in accordance with the results of the census. It shall be the task of the electoral commission to adjust the number for the assignment of seats.

If as a result of the application of the formula contained in the present Article a territorial constituency should lose one or more seats, it shall keep the number of seats to which it was entitled on July 20, 2002.

The Congress of the Republic shall issue regulations for the international constituency until December 16, 2013 at the latest; otherwise the National Government shall do so within thirty (30) days following that date. The regulations shall cover, among other things, the following matters: the registration of candidates, the registration of citizens entitled to vote abroad, mechanisms to promote the participation in the vote and the holding of the ballot in the Consulates and State funding for visits abroad by the elected Representative.