There are some trends worth mentioning about the first half-year activities of the Verkhovna Rada: the number of registered bills has increased in 15% if compared to the Parliament of VII convocation; the national security and defense issues, activities of law-enforcement bodies, tax and customs policy became topical; and presidential legislative initiatives are stably supported – 74% adopted. However, the following issues still remain topical: low attendance on plenary sessions and committee meetings; some factions ignore the voting process; and there is the need to create a comprehensive system for quality assessment of bills and planning of law-making activities.
OPORA REPORTING. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: half-year activities
In the first half-year (27 November 2014 – 27 May 2015), the Parliament had 1.7 times more working days than the Parliament of VII convocation (48 and 28 plenary days respectively). President and Government demonstrate much higher efficiency coefficient in law-making activities compared to MPs who have developed only 13% initiatives which were adopted (368 of 2.777). Thus, 74% of introduced presidential legislative initiatives (26 of 35) and 35% of Cabinet of Ministers' initiatives (56 of 159) were approved by the Parliament. At the same time, the core amount of law initiatives was introduced by MPs – 94% of the total number.
It should be mentioned that AUU Batkivshchyna, Radical Party of Oleh Liashko and non-faction MPS have the highest average number of registered bills per MP (being author or co-author) – 49, 33, and 26 respectively.
Another problem that is still topical for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is attendance on plenary meetings. Only 22 MPs were present at every plenary meeting of the Parliament, 10 MPs failed to prepare at least one inquiry for six months, didn't take the floor on plenary sittings, and didn't participate in preparation of bills [1].
Olha Aivazovska, Electoral and Parliamentary Programs Coordinator of the Civil Network OPORA, states: “Contrary to the Rules of Parliamentary Procedure, almost one third of MPs (138 persons, 31.58%) were either absent during the voting or were present but didn't cast vote on 50% of votings.” For example, the Opposition Block has mostly ignored the voting on agenda issues (42.2%), and supported the smallest number of draft laws and resolutions among all the parties (only 8.16% of votes "for"). It's worth to mention that the smallest number of plenary sessions visited: Andrii Biletskyi (10%), Dmytro Yarosh (13%), Vitalii Chepynoha (23%), Kostiantyn Zhevaho (26%), Serhii Pashynskyi (28%) and Dmytro Sviatash (28%).
Members of the People's Front turned out to be the most disciplined. They have visited 88% of plenary meetings in average. Members of the Revival deputy group showed the worst attendance of plenary meetings (69%). The attendance of parliamentary committees is the same: MPs of the People's Front show the best attendance (88.98%), the Revival deputy group – the worst (48.84%). The Committee for Informatization and Communications has had the best attendance for the first half-year (86.18%), and members of the Committee on National Security and Defense were the least disciplined (average attendance – 60.75%). It should be mentioned that women MPs have proven to be better disciplined than men MPS when it comes to attendance on meetings of committees. The average attendance of women MPs is 81.84%; men – 73.77%.
MPs of Ukraine have sent nearly 2,420 inquiries to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. As for collective inquiries, the largest number of MPs had signed inquiries concerning withdrawal of diplomatic passports from MPs of VII convocation who voted for “dictatorship laws” (40 signatures), inquiries concerning “green” tariffs on electricity (40 signatures) and concerning the situation on air travel market (31).
According to OPORA's calculations, the People's Front faction has supported draft decisions initiated by the Parliament the most often (in 69.94 % of cases). As for the ruling coalition, the Samopomich Union supported the draft laws and resolutions in the agenda the least (53.24%). The Opposition Block has ignored the voting for most of the issues on the agenda, and supported only some draft laws and resolutions (only 8.16% of votes "for"). These calculations demonstrate political strategies of parliamentary factions. On one side, the Opposition Block is trying to show by such ignorance of the voting that it is the only party in opposition. On the other side, some members of the ruling coalition are not going to take political responsibility for all decisions of the Parliament (particularly the Samopomich).
The joint voting data show the current situation between political allies and partners; we can see that factions in the coalition often act in co-ordination. The People's Front and Petro Poroshenko Block have strongest political partnership in the Parliament – they have voted for 94% initiatives together; the People's Front and Radical Party of Oleh Liashko are on the second places – 92%; Petro Poroshenko Block and Radical Party of Oleh Liashko – 90%; People's Front and AUU Batkivshchyna – 77%; and Radical Party of Oleh Liashko and AUU Batkivshchyna supported 75% of considered bills and resolutions together.
It's worth to mention that OPORA conducts monitoring of majoritarian MPs in 36 districts of 12 oblasts (Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernivtsi, Zakarpattia, Luhansk, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Sumy oblasts and Kyiv city) under a pilot monitoring project implemented under USAID's Accountability, Responsibility, and Democratic Parliamentary Representation (RADA) Program. It turned out that the most widespread problems in the abovementioned districts are: corruption and preventing the certain individuals, institutions and organizations from illegitimate activities; unemployment; environmental issues and problems related to housing and communal services.
RADA Project Director Olena Rybii has emphasized that current majoritarian MPs are quite open, and each interested citizen can find contacts of receptions and assistants to most of MPs, included in the research, which are available in unrestricted access on their social networks and in local media. It was interesting to discover that most of MPs are quite advanced internet users and have Facebook pages (29 of 36 MPs), and personal websites (11) used for reporting on the work done. However, we have to admit that MPs still haven't got used to the regular reporting. Thus, only less than a half of them have informed citizens about their achievements for the last six months.
According to OPORA's data on 36 majoritarian districts, most of inquiries sent by citizens to MPs concerned financial assistance, legal aid, housing issues or complaints on actions of local government or law-enforcement bodies.
OPORA REPORTING. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: half-year activities
For comment, please contact:
Olha Aivazovska, phone: (063) 617 97 50
Olena Rybii, phone: (098) 618 19 11
Parliamentary monitoring |Website | Facebook | Twitter ( #рада8; #rada8; #opora; #опора)
[1]S. Kliuiev (non-faction), D. Omelianovych (Opposition Block), Ye. Balytskyi (Opposition Block), K. Zhevaho (non-faction), D. Dobkin (Opposition Block), V. Zubyk (Revival group), I. Myrnyi (Opposition Block), N. Savchenko (AUU Batkivshchyna, is being illegally detained on the territory of the Russian Federation), O. Savchenko (PPB), Yu. Babii (People's Front, giving the floor to another MP on 24 April 2015 wasn't counted as a speech).
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