We’ve slowed down a little bit for the holidays, but expect us to ramp up activity in the new year. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a wonderful new year to all! Here’s 2012’s last update:
News in parliamentary monitoring:
In the United States, Popvox published its ‘Weekly Roundup’ of bills considered in Congress on its blog. This is a regularly published resource that Popvox offers to its readers, highlighting the topics and legislation debated in Congress in a given week. In the wake of the devastating school shooting in the U.S., Popvox also published an issue-focused blog on bills that address mental health care. Check out the Popvox blog for a vast amount of resources and good examples of how an organization uses parliamentary data.
In Ukraine, PMO community member Chesno has begun monitoring the newly elected parliament. On it’s first working day, Chesno pointed out two cases of members of parliament allowing another member to vote in their place, detailed in Chesno’s blog and covered by the news media. Chesno also plans to focus on MP attendance of committee and plenary sessions.
A member of parliament in Mexico published an opinion piece in national media calling on the Mexican Congress to adopt a digital strategy, allowing it to better engage citizens using ICTs. The article calls on parliament to adopt a policy of openness and transparency, and cites the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency’s index and the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness as important tools to achieve that end.
Mzalendo, a PMO in Kenya, published a blog post citing very low attendance rates in the Kenyan parliament as the country approaches major elections next Spring. Although parliament will be dissolved in advance of the elections, there is still important business for MPs to consider.
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