We have noticed that majoritarian MPs tend to work inconsistently in their electoral districts. While most of the monitored MPs fulfill their duties in constituencies, the needs of the latter are barely delivered to the Parliament. Thus, 28% didn't conduct any public receptions in their districts, and only 34% of draft laws concern constituency issues. These problems were referred to by representatives of Civil Network OPORA on 6 September conference.
According to OPORA's Analyst Oleksandr Neberykut, it is quite helpful to summarize the results of previous session before starting a new one, and see the success and achievements of MPs approaching a new political season.
“Thus, the leaders of half-year rating from OPORA are the following: Roman Matsola (Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction) with 100 points, Maksym Burbak from Chernivtsi oblast (Narodnyi Front faction) with 93 points and Andrii Shynkovych from Khmelnytsk oblast (Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction) with 92 points. The following MPs took the lowest places in the rating: non-faction MP Dmytro Yarosh (11 baliv), Andrii Denysenko (25 points) and representative of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction Vadym Nesterenko (22 points). Non-faction MP Kostiantyn Zhevaho from Poltava oblast has also received unprecedentedly low 22 points,” – he said.
According to the Analyst, each of 88 MPs has registered 11 draft laws in average during the 6th session. It should be mentioned, that only 34% of the draft laws concern the problems in constituencies, but the percentage of draft laws, which are in line with campaign promises is as high as 57%. Besides that, 53% of parliamentary inquiries concerned the problems in constituencies. The MPs were not very active in plenary speeches during the last session. 50% of the monitored MPs didn't give any speeches in the Parliament for the whole session. As for constituency activities, each monitored MP has 2 public receptions in average. However, not all of them receive the citizens personally. Thus, 28% of MPs didn't conduct any personal receptions during the 6th session. Only 10% of MPs didn't conduct any public events. However, the percentage of MPs who didn't participate in activities of local government bodies is much higher – 31%. 22% of MPs didn't report to the voters for six months.
“Our findings clearly demonstrate how responsible the MPs were over the last six months in terms of their direct functions (communication with the voters, development of draft laws, oversight of executive bodies, participation in plenary sittings and activities of the committees). We didn't rate their efficiency directly, thinking that an MP who does not fulfill his direct responsibilities can not be considered efficient,” – Oleksandr Neberykut emphasized.
According to OPORA's Project Director under the RADA program Anatolii Bondarchuk, a network of public consultants was created in 13 regions, who had monitored the local processes and maintained communication with MPs and their assistants.
“88 MPs were selected for monitoring purposes based on proportional representation of all parliamentary parties, gender representation, and previous activeness in their districts. Analysis of their activities was based on two key indicators: law-making in the parliament and activeness in electoral district. We analyzed activities of the selected MPs, elected in majoritarian districts of 13 oblasts, every month under the monitoring campaign. For example, we monitored activities of an MP in an election precinct (visits, reception of citizens, speeches on local mass media, participation in activities of local councils and executive bodies) law-making efforts, reports on activities, functioning of his public receptions, personal website or pages etc. We have carefully studied the problems existing in territorial communities included in the analysis, and checked whether MPs aim to resolve them. We created a monthly rating of 88 MPs, graded by 100 point scale on 24 activeness criteria (100 is the best). All the monitoring results are available at the RADA website, in the section “Ratings”, – he mentioned.
Besides that, public consultants organized awareness rising meetings with the citizens, mobilize the citizens and MPs for a dialog.
“Thus, our consultants conducted practical trainings for teams of MPs, dedicated to the reporting. They explained why it is important to report, how the reports should look like for various target audiences, what should be taken into consideration while preparing them etc. They are conducting a number of press-conferences to present regional monitoring results. Besides that, in spring, each of them organized a public discussion on the topic of communication between parties and voters in the regions. We are also planning to finish the manual for students, and conduct a series of lectures in higher educational establishments,” – Anatolii Bondarchuk added.
More information about the methodology is here. Sixth session Rating of 88 majoritarian MPs is available at: http://longread.oporaua.org/rejtyng-6ta-sesiya
The event was organized by Civil Network OPORA under USAID's Program RADA: Accountability, Responsibility, and Democratic Parliamentary Representation (RADA) Program, supported by the Eastern European Fund and partners.
For further information, please contact:
Kateryna Zhemchuzhnykova, Press-secretary at OPORA
Phone: 066 270 17 13
e-mail: [email protected]