The easiest way to fool the Riigikogu computer is by simply playing «being present». Enough to show up for the morning session, get registered, and thereafter one may sit in his office or leave the house altogether.
This Friday, Chancellery of the Riigikogu panicked bad, as it turned out that for a very long time they have fed the public false information regarding attendance at voting. «Regrettably, at the moment the statistics at the Riigikogu website do not reflect all data correctly,» said the press service. «Chancellery of the Riigikogu is busy searching out the error.»
While the right data is not there, we have to do with what the Riigikogu forwarded up to Friday.
For the sake of equality, I only undertook to compare the 62 deputies who have been members of this set since its beginning i.e. starting April 2011. When doing a chart in category «the least», the names aren’t usually repeated. Except for one – Mr Heinvee (Reform Party) is firmly in top five. In the interview added, he does admit he doesn’t like the job.
For some reason, the most listless at Riigikogu are members of factions – thus, among those least likely to vote, one finds a whopping seven IRL and/or Reform Party members. Till spring, IRL was in the coalition. The four who took the floor the least are all Reform Party. In the top ten most quiet in their seats are Reform Party and IRL people only.
True, due to their status, those in opposition like to stand out more and to hold speeches – while the coalition are in power anyhow and aren’t asking too many questions.
Among those absent with and without reasons, opposition does rank among top doers. Still, the record holder is the squirrel Igor Gräzin: by last week, he’d been missing 54 times with a reason and 35 without.
Regarding that, former Riigikogu member Silver Meikar says being absent for no reason is a sign of remarkable laziness, as all it would take is sending an e-mail to chancellery about a fictitious event and the reason would be there. «One can always find a reason,» said Mr Meikar. «One just says there was some meeting and one just couldn’t attend the session.» That will do. Being absent does not include being sick or on mission abroad – these come under separate category.
The weightiest indicator of a deputy’s activeness is deemed to work at committees, but regarding that the Riigikogu reveals no official statistics. Still, we get some understanding of committee work by the amount of bills initiated or, what’s more, conducted by deputies – these are the bills that a deputy will undertake to prepare. When it comes to preparing bills, Centre Party people are the most passive; a reason might be that the opposition is not too prone to trust the coalition in committees – who knows what they sneak in there.