Though not as important as the lower house, the upper house can cause frustrating delays and dilute policy.
The Japanese media said prosecutors would seek permission from parliament for Mr Suzuki's arrest - a step necessary in Japanese law - with the politician's own house, the lower house, voting on the issue as early as Tuesday.
The nation's parliament consists of the Upper House (Senate) and the Lower House (National Assembly) and the four provincial assemblies.
The Lokpal bill has passed in the lower house of parliament but the upper house adjourned amid chaos in December without passing the controversial bill.
Once this has taken place, the matter is taken out of the hands of the lower house and goes to the upper house, the Senate.
In other words, if Berlin wants to pass decision-making power to Brussels, it has to do so by passing a law in the lower house of the German parliament and having it approved in the upper house.
Abolishing the upper house requires a constitutional change with the support of two-thirds of the lower house, as well as a majority in the upper house prepared to vote the chamber out of existence.
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Whoever wins the lower house at the next general election, due by 2013, is unlikely to hold a majority in the upper house.
He said Mr Cahuzac should not return to the lower house - the National Assembly.
Mr Komorowski is also speaker of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament.
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The lower house of the Irish parliament voted through the legislation by 113 to 36.
This has passed the lower house but will be delayed by the upper house.
Members in both the lower house and the Senate failed in their first attempts to elect speakers.
Ireland's Senead has 60 members chosen for five-year terms, the same as the lower house, the Dail.
The centre-left won the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, with a wafer-thin margin of the nationwide vote.
It keeps just 119 out of 480 seats in the lower house of the Diet, down from 300.
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He was elected to the lower house of the Indian parliament in 1992 by a borough of New Delhi.
The other is Bronislaw Komorowski, the speaker of the lower house of the Polish parliament, who has been acting president since the crash.
In the lower house of the present French parliament fewer than 11% of its members are women, one of the lowest in Europe.
All parties represented in the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, are now ostensibly in favour of holding an early parliamentary election.
Italy's hung parliament met for the first time on Friday, when ministers began the process of electing leaders of the lower house and the Senate.
In December 2011, the lower house of the Czech parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, approved an amendment to the constitution allowing for direct presidential elections.
It is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia.
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She joined the lower house of the provincial legislature, and made so many charitable gifts that in 2010 she ranked No. 6 on the Forbes China list of philanthropists.
"We think it is fundamental to clean up this situation, " says Cecilia Merchan, a member of the lower house of the Argentine Congress and a leading voice in the pro-choice debate.
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Already, the Ozawa party seems likely to become the third largest in the lower house, the key parliamentary chamber, coming after the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) crowding out the New Komeito (NK).
The no confidence motion presented by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-led opposition parties to the lower house of the Diet on June 2 failed by a vote of 152 for to 293 against.
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Yet, signals of waning commitment to our missile defense agreements have recently caused the lower house of the Czech parliament to refuse ratification of our latest agreement despite its passage in their senate.
Although the lower house of the Texas legislature and most of the state's congressional districts remain in Democratic hands, this is largely thanks to a crafty redistricting scheme devised by Democrats in the legislature after the 1990 census.
The centre-right has a majority not only in the Bundestag, the lower house, but also in the Bundesrat, the upper house made up of state representatives, which it will retain so long as it keeps control of North Rhine-Westphalia next May.
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