Compared to the previous convocation, the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation has renewed by 80%. It became slightly younger, and the representation of women has increased by 9%. Besides that, for the first time in the history of Ukraine, the legislative body has a so-called mono party majority of the Servant of the People (248 MPs). These and other factors had definitely influenced the first year of the new, already ninth, convocation of Ukrainian Parliament.

Legislative activity

The Parliament of IX convocation has registered 2,161 draft laws over the first year of its functioning. This is 25% less than during the same period of the Verkhovna Rada of the previous convocation. MPs have submitted the largest number of initiatives - 86.3%, the Cabinet of Ministers - 9.7%, and the President - 4%. The vast majority of them concerns economic policy (32.4%), sectoral development (22.7%) and legal policy (21%).

In this convocation, as well as in the previous one, only every 8th introduced draft law was adopted in the session hall (12.7%) over the first year of work. Thus, Presidential initiatives have the highest level of support (50.6%), followed by legislative initiatives of the Government (16.7%), and MPs on the third place (10.5%).

 

A similar trend was observed in the Parliament of the last convocation, but the percentage of supported initiatives from MPs has increased by 3.5% and from the President has decreased by 30% (but we should take into account that the total number of initiatives submitted by the President is rather small).

However, the situation with initiatives from the Cabinet of Ministers is quite demonstrative. While MPs of the previous convocation approved more than 37% of government initiatives over the first year, this convocation has approved only 16.7%. After all, MPs have clearly demonstrated their non-support to the government action programs yet in June.

Legislative initiatives that were supported by the Verkhovna Rada include:

  • Adoption of the Election Code of Ukraine.
  • Completion of the decentralization process through the adoption of the corresponding amendments to the Law of Ukraine on Local Self-Government in Ukraine (#2653).
  • Adoption of the Law on Improvement of Some Mechanisms for Banking Regulation (#2571-d).
  • Introduction of a free land market (#2178-10).
  • Adoption of draft laws aimed at counteracting Covid-19 (#3275, #3320, #3329-d and some other).

In addition, a number of laws have been passed to improve the quality of parliamentary activities:

  • Lifting parliamentary immunity (#7203).
  • Criminal liability for impersonal voting (#2148).
  • Financial sanctions for absenteeism (#1035-2).
  • Countering the abuse of MP rights during a legislative procedure (#1043).
  • Possibility to hold meetings of parliamentary committees online until the quarantine is canceled in Ukraine (#3277).

 

Voting

Position of the Parliament

The Parliament had 4,970 votings over a year, and the "Rada"system button was pressed 2 million 74 thousand times. MPs voted "for" the most often (38,2% of the total number of the button being pushed). MPs "abstained" in 30% of cases, voted "against" in 5.3%. In 12.7% of cases, MPs were absent, and in 13.8% - did not vote (i.e. ignored the vote).

 

When comparing this convocation of the Parliament with the previous, we should mention that the number of votes has increased by over 40%. However, the majority of votes in the Parliament of IX convocation (60%) were given for amendments to draft laws, while the Parliament of VIII convocation voted for similar initiatives only in 11.5% of cases.

Besides that, the discipline of MPs has significantly improved compared to the previous convocation. Thus, the attendance of MPs has increased in almost two times (MPs of VIII convocation missed 24% of the votes over the same period of time). The number of ignored votes has also decreased (i.e. the number of votes "for", "against", and abstained" has increased).

How factions voted

MPs from the AUU Batkivshchyna have the biggest percentage of "for" votes (45.2%), the Dovira group of MPs is on the second place (40.6%), and Servant of the People is on the third (40.5%). The Holos faction has the smallest percentage of "for" votes (26.9%).

The "Holos" and Servants of the People have the biggest number of "against" votes (7.6% and 6.7% respectively). The For the Future group of MPs has the smallest percentage of "against" votes (0.7%).

In general, all factions in this convocation choose to abstain from the vote more often. However, the following factions abstain the most often: "Holos" (38.7%), European Solidarity (36.3%), and Servant of the People (35.8%). MPs from the Opposition Platform - For Life (12.4%) abstain the least often.

Members of the Batkivshchyna faction missed sittings the most often - 26.2%. Representatives of the For the Future group (31.6%) and the Opposition Platform for Life (31.6%) did not vote at all.

Truants

This convocation of the Parliament has less truants than the previous one. In general, only 6 MPs missed more than 50% of meetings over the year: Vadym Stoliar (Opposition Platform - For Life) - 79.8%, Vadym Rabinovych (Opposition Platform - For Life) - 77.3%, Anzhelika Labunska (AUU Batkivshchyna) - 70.1%, Dmytro Shentsov (non-faction) - 60.9%, Oleksandr Dubinskyi(Servant of the People) - 59.3% and Victor Baloha(For the Future group of MPs) - 50.6%.

At the same time, 123 (29%) MPs missed less than 5% of votes.

Against the faction line

Oleksandr Dubinskyi from the Servant of the People follows the party line the least often in current Parliament. Thus, his choice differ from the party line in 76.8% of votes.

Ihor Abramovych is the one who votes contrary to the party line the most often in the Opposition Platform - For Life. His "rebellion" percentage reaches almost 65.7%.

Petro Poroshenko follows the party line the least often among MPs of the European Solidarity. His votes contrary to the party line reach 61.8%.

In the For the Future group of MPs, Ihor Palytsia votes on his own the most often. Thus, he voted contrary to the party line in 50.4% of votes.

Oleh Kulinich is the rebellion in the Dovira group of MPs. In 42% of cases, he voted against the position of the group.

In the Holos faction, Yaroslav Rushchyshyn votes contrary to the party line the most often. The MP has 33.7% of such votes.

In the Batkivshchyna faction, Serhii Taruta votes contrary to the line of party the most often, and has 28.2% of such votes.

Speeches of MPs

During the first year of the current Parliament, 10,872 speeches took place with a total duration of almost 209 hours. Members of the following factions gave the largest number of speeches: Servant of the People - 2,553, Opposition Platform - For Life - 1,954 and AUU Batkivshchyna - 1,399. The following of 351 MPs (excluding the speaker and vice-speakers), spoke in the session hall the longest: Nestor Shufrych (Opposition Platform - For Life) - 7 hours 23 minutes (343 speeches), Nataliia Korolevska (Opposition Platform - For Life) - 6 hours 40 minutes (251 speeches), Vadym Ivchenko (AUU Batkivshchyna) - 5 hours 16 minutes (225), Oleksandr Koltunovych (Opposition Platform - For Life) - 4 hours 52 minutes (224), Oleksii Honcharenko (European Solidarity) - 4 hours 46 minutes (188) and Iryna Herashchenko (European Solidarity) - 4 hours 50 minutes (187).