They were the first relatively free elections held in the SSR, and the closest thing to a free election Ukraine had seen since the unfinished 1918 Constituent Assembly elections. Although the campaign was far from being clear and transparent, representatives of the Democratic Bloc were the first to provide a legal challenge to the authority of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR in parliament. A total of 442 National Deputies were elected – short of the 450 seat total, due to low voter turnout.
