Performance Report of MPs Elected through Majoritarian Voting System in the 8th Parliament of Georgia
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) presents performance report of MPs elected through majoritarian voting system in the 8th Parliament of Georgia, covering the reporting period from November 2012 to February 2016. It is important to study performance of majoritarian MPs in view of their special mandate to communicate directly with constituents in their respective majoritarian districts, to identify, generalize and take actions in response to their needs and concerns. Work of majoritarian MPs in their constituencies is supported by the bureaus, which provide assistance for effective performance and communication with local population. Majoritarian MPs have the right to introduce bills and make speeches at plenary sittings, which should be the most effective way to solve local problems at the legislative level.
This report provides an account of monitoring parliamentary performance of majoritarian MPs, including number of their legislative initiatives, as well as quantitative analysis of their absences from plenary sittings without a valid reason and speeches made at plenary sittings. The report also provides information about actions of majoritarian MPs taken in response to requests/appeals of citizens and frequency of their meetings with constituents, functions of the bureaus, their budgets and staffing policy.
To analyze performance of majoritarian MPs in the 8th parliament of Georgia elected in 2012, ISFED requested access to the following public information from the majoritarian MPs concerning their performance:
• Frequency of meetings with constituents;
• Actions taken in response to written requests of constituents;
• Number of written requests submitted to the Bureaus;
• Number of employees at each Bureau;
• Annual salary budgets of each Bureau.
In addition, ISFED requested access to the following information from the Office of the Parliament of Georgia about performance of the majoritarian MPs:
• Number of bills were introduced by majoritarian MPs and names of majoritarian MPs that introduced each bill;
• Names of majoritarian MPs that exercised their right to make a speech during a plenary sitting and frequency of these speeches.
Out of 73 MPs elected through the majoritarian voting system, only 27 provided the information requested by ISFED.
The Office of the Parliament of Georgia provided timely and detailed answers to all questions of ISFED.