Prague, Oct 23 (CTK) – Forty-four women were elected to the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Czech parliament, in the October 20-21 election, which is five more that four years ago and the same as their so far record high number in 2010, according to statistical data.
The Chamber of Deputies has turned younger slightly. While four years ago, the average age of MPs was almost 50, now it is 47.5 years.
In the general election in 2006, only 31 women entered the Chamber of Deputies, while four years earlier it was 34.
The smallest deputy group of the Mayors and Independents (STAN) has the highest share of women, two of its six MPs, followed by the TOP 09 group in which two of its seven MPs are women.
Women make up almost one-third of MPs elected for the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) of Tomio Okamura, six out of 22. The strongest deputy group of the winning ANO movement of Andrej Babis has about one-quarter of women – 20 out of its 78 members.
On the contrary, just one woman was elected for the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL). This was the only party without any women in its deputy group after the previous election in 2013.
The newly elected deputies also include the ever youngest and oldest Czech lawmakers: Dominik Feri (TOP 09) aged 21 years, three months and then days, and Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09), 79.
Feri has thus beaten the record of Katerina Konecna (Communists, KSCM) from 2002 by 1.5 months. Apart from Feri, there is another 21-year-old new deputy, Frantisek Kopriva (Pirates), who will turn 22 in November.
Ex-foreign minister and former TOP 09 leader Schwarzenberg will become the doyen in the Chamber of Deputies again. However, this year he beat the record of the so far oldest Zdenek Jicinsky who was elected in 2006 at the age of 77 years.
The Pirate Party, whicht has entered the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in history, will have the youngest deputy group with the average age of 34 years, while the Communists (KSCM) will have the oldest group with their MPs aged 53 years on average.
Four years ago, most deputies or 106 were aged over 50, but this year, 20 MPs fewer are in this age category, the same as in 2010.
The number of MPs aged between 20 and 30 has almost doubled, from four to seven, while seven years ago, there were 12 MPs under 30.
Most of the elected deputies use some academic title. There is a number of active university and college lecturers among them, including ten professors.
Review of MPs according to their age, gender since 1992:
year 1992 1996 1998 2002 2006 2010 2013 2017
average age 43.17 43.84 45.20 46.87 47.90 47.21 49.95 47.5
women
(in percent)
21 (10.5) 30 (15) 30 (15) 34 (17) 31 (15.5) 44 (22) 39 (19.5) 44 (22)
under 29 17 18 10 5 7 12 4 7
over 50 49 63 71 81 88 86 106 86
youngest Stanislav Gross (CSSD; 22) Tomas Teplik (CSSD; 22) Tomas Teplik* (ODS; 24) Katerina Konecna (KSCM; 21) Katerina Konecna (KSCM; 25) Adam Rykala (CSSD; 23) Adam Rykala (CSSD; 27) Dominik Feri (TOP 09; 21)
oldest Robert Dostal (CSSD; 63) Zdenek Jicinsky (CSSD; 67) Augustin Bubnik (ODS; 69) Jaroslav Gongol (KSCM; 65) Zdenek Jicinsky (CSSD; 77) Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09; 72) Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09; 75) Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09; 79)
CSSD – Social Democrats (CSSD)
ODS – Civic Democrats (ODS)
*Teplik was elected for the CSSD in 1996, but he supported the ODS-led right-wing government in 1996 and joined the ODS in 1997 for which he was-re-elected a year later.
