being formed as a faction in the Verkhovna Rada, for example, the Party of Regions, All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" and Labour Ukraine. Each parliamentary faction or group appoints a leader. Since the Imperative mandate provisions of the Ukrainian constitution came into effect again in February 2014 a political party can withdraw a parliamentary mandate if one of their MPs leaves its parliamentary faction. MPs who defected from one faction to another were known as "Tushky" a derogatory name meaning "carcass". The term was applied to deputies allegedly bribed to switch factions. In 2010, women accounted for 8.5% of MPs. After the 2012 parliamentary election they made up 10% of the parliament. Following the 2014 parliamentary election women made up 11.1% of the parliament; setting a record for Ukraine. For comparison, the EU average for female representation in national legislatures was 25% as of 2014. Ukraine made further progress in this area in the 2019 elections, following which 21% of the Rada was female. On 20 March 2022, the activities of the main opposition party, Opposition Platform — For Life were suspended by the National Security and Defense Council for the period of martial law due to allegations of having ties to Russia made by the Council during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biggest parliamentary factions 1990–1994 Communist Party of Ukraine (After the failed 1991 August Putsch in Moscow it was simply called as Group of 239) 1994–2002 Communist Party of Ukraine 2002–2006 Viktor Yushchenko Bloc "Our Ukraine" 2006–2014 Party of Regions 2014 All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" 2014–2019 Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity" 2019–present Servant of the People Members of Parliament Members of the Verkhovna Rada are known officially as "People's deputies of Ukraine". According to the "Law on elections of national deputies of Ukraine", a citizen of Ukraine may become a People's Deputy if he or she has, on the day of the election, a) reached 21 years of age; b) political franchise; c) resided in Ukraine for the last five years. Deputies have the right to free transportation, free use of the hall of official delegations, free housing, free medical services and free vacations at health spas. Each deputy is allowed to have up to 31 assistants-consultants four out of them are allowed to be admitted into the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada. Until 2019, the Ukrainian President, Prime Minister, members of the government and deputies all had parliamentary immunity and agents