How does an average MP of Ukraine look like? It is a 47 year old man with annual income of some millions UAH, who has received higher education and is experienced in politics. OPORA has received such data after analyzing information about education, background, and income declarations of MPs for the previous year.

So, how does it look like, those collective image of Ukrainian Parliament, which adopts laws for 46 million of people.

Minority of women

There are 43 women in the highest legislative body, what is 10% of all parliamentary members. French Parliament, for example, has 27% women, Polish – 24%, Russian – 14%. Nevertheless, it's the highest number for the whole period of independence. The VRU of the 1st convocation had 11 women (2,5%), therefore, today's numbers seems to be progressive when compared to those 20 years ago.

The biggest number of female MPS are members of the Party of Regions – 14, a little less are members of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland – 12. The UDAR and the CPU factions have 7 women each. The Svoboda party has the smallest number of women – two. One woman is not affiliated in any faction (Anzhelika Labunska).

The biggest number of MPs have indicated Kyiv city as their place of residence. Donetsk city and Donetsk oblast are represented by 36 MPs. Besides that, Donetsk oblast has the biggest number of single-mandate majoritarian election districts – 21 (8,11 %).

Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, and Kharkiv oblasts have almost equal representation – 23, 21, and 20 MPs respectively. There are only four deputies from Zhytomyr oblast, and only two from Sevastopol.

440 VRU deputies of 444 (99%) have received higher education. Two MPs have indicated in their files that they have received general secondary education (Mustafa Dzhemilov from All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland, and Svitlana Fabrykant from the Party of Regions), and the other two – secondary (Anatolii Vitiv and Oleksandr Myrnyi from the Svoboda).

The youngest MP in the Parliament is a member of the Svoboda party Andrii Illienko, and the eldest – Yukhym Zviahilskyi from the Party of Regions. The average age of MPs in the Verkhovna Rada is 47,6 years. The Party of Regions and the CPU are "the oldest" factions. Average age of their members – is 50 years. The average age of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland is the same as the average age of the Rada itself – 47 years, non-faction MPs are slightly younger – 45 years. The UDAR and the All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda factions are "the youngest" – 43 years. The Head of the VRU Volodymyr Rybak is 66 years old.

Who is the richest?

Having analyzed income declarations of MPs for 2011, published on the site of the CEC, OPORA have estimated an average income in factions. The richest faction in the Parliament is the Party of Regions. Average income of MPs in this faction is 4,822,785 UAH. At the same time, the UDAR party has 2,5 millions less – 2,303,624 UAH of yearly income for 2011, the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland – 885,012 UAH. The CPU faction members, which average annual income is 448,225 UAH, and members of the Svoboda faction (328,373 UAH), are the poorest in the Parliament.

Member of the Party of Regions Borys Koliesnikov is the richest MP. He has declared 166,437,638 UAH of yearly income in 2011. The second place is taken by non-faction deputy Petro Poroshenko, who has an annual income of 86,605,481 UAH. The following MPs have declared "zero" income: Burbak Maksym, Kupreichyk Iryna, Medunytsia Oleh, Sliuz Tetiana – the Fatherland faction, Osukhovskyi Oleh, Syrotiuk Yurii, Cherniakov Valerii, Shvaika Ihor – the Svoboda faction, Dzardanov Mykola i Shuhalo Roman – the Communist faction, Mochkov Oleksandr from the UDAR and Pekhov Volodymyr from the Party of Regions. Opposition deputy Leonid Yemets have declared 390 UAH for 2011.

The wealthiest member of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland is Leonid Serhiienko, which was 46st in the electoral listof the opposition. He had 27,855,631 UAH of annual income in 2011. Vitalii Klychko had the highest income in the UDAR party – 37,806,192 UAH. However, this number was indicated in the column titled 'income, received (transferred) from abroad sources'. The column 'Total number of aggregate income' is empty. Oksana Kalentyk is the richest member of the Communist Party of Ukraine. She had received almost 10 millions of income during 2011 (9,962,868 UAH). Oleksandr Myrnyi, a member of the Svoboda faction, had 7,589,955 UAH of annual income – the biggest number among his colleagues. The VRU Head declared half of a million income (587,906) in 2011.

From powerlifting coach to a politician

According to the Law On the Status of National Deputies, parliamentary members are not allowed to be engaged in any paid work, except for scientific and creative activities, or medical practice in free from duties of the MP time, legal practice, in management, administration, or board of profitable enterprise or organization. Having received a status of MP, deputies had to leave their business and totally devote themselves to activities of the legislative body.

According to the statistics, one have to be engaged in politics in order to become an MP. Even if there are exceptions, they prove this rule. More than a half of parliamentary members (166 or 37.4%) were deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of previous convocation. 122 MPs (27.5%) had their own business or were engaged in someone else's business (as managers or Deputy Directors), 49 MPs (11%) were involved in social and political activities. 46 (10%)of MPs were government officials, including the richest of them – Borys Koliesnikov and Petro Poroshenko. The minority of MPs were working in local governments – 4.7% (21), and in the sphere of education and science – 3.8% (17). 12 MPs (2.7%) were temporarily unemployed, six (1.4%) were pensioners, and two (0.5%) were mass media representatives.

There were also creative and sport jobs. The Verkhovna Rada of 7th convocation includes one writer – Mariia Matios (the UDAR), one actor – Bohdan Beniuk (All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda), and a powerlifting coach – Ihor Pober, which was 25th in electoral lists of the UDAR party of Vitalii Klychko. It's interesting that a singer Taisiia Povalii, second in the list of the Party of Regions, has indicated that she is private entrepreneur and, therefore, was included to those engaged in business.

In September, before the elections, sociologists of the Razumkov Center polling agency have created a portrait of a perfect MP. According to the research, the voters would rather choose a man than a women, and they don't care about the age. Citizens prefer individuals, experienced in politics, perhaps, a former MP or a local politician. The voters are convinced that MPs shouldn't be engaged in business, but should have economic skills and work experience in an enterprise or as a jurist. Besides that, he is supposed to have financial standing similar to the majority of citizens in the district, and to understand their needs.

As we can see, the portrait an average MP is reflecting the tastes of voters.

More information about parliamentary working days, activities of MPs and factions, is available at the site of OPORA oporaua.org and in a joint project of the TVi Channel and the Civil Network OPORA Dear Deputies, on Fridays, at 9pm.