Much of the parliament’s work in the past five years has been destructive and contributed to democratic regression. This group also broke laws often by failing to vote in person as the Constitution requires. For the ruling Party of Regions, voting on instructions from fellow lawmaker Mykhailo Chechetov became so common and frequent that he was nicknamed the conductor, while deputies voting for colleagues were called pianists.

But that’s not the Rada’s only addition to the vocabulary. Another is “tushki,” used to describe lawmakers who defected to the ruling coalition often cajoled by money, favors, pressure or all of the above. This phenomenon took off in 2010, after Viktor Yanukovych was elected president, and resulted in the creation of a majority consisting of the Party of Regions, Lytvyn’s eponymous bloc and the Communist Party faction, which adopted many divisive, harmful and defective laws.

One such example is the language law, which elevated the status of Russian ahead of the Oct. 28 parliamentary election, triggering protests. The recent election, moreover, was conducted on the basis of a law that, in some respects, created more problems than it solved.

This is the same parliament that voted to extend the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine through 2042, an act many consider to be treason. Parliament failed to eliminate some provisions of the Soviet-era criminal code, and adopted a new one that doesn’t go far enough in changing the nation’s barbaric criminal justice system.

Unfortunately, the next parliament might not bring the change Ukraine so desperately needs. According to Chesno, a civic campaign for cleaner politics, of the 450 newly elected deputies, 331 have broken basic rules – failing to vote in person, switching alliances, not showing up for work or being implicated in corruption. These people are present in all five major parties and in single-mandate districts. 

The legislature is supposed to be an independent branch of government that provides a check on the executive and judicial branches. It’s supposed to be a forum for open debate and transparent government. Lawmakers are supposed to make life better for the nation. This parliament was a miserable failure, a phony institution serving powerful vested interests. Let’s hope this is not the kind of parliament that the nation will have to endure for the next five years as well.