Chesno (Ukrainian: Чесно, lit. 'honestly, fairly') is a Ukrainian public campaign that emerged late 2011 to advance a fair election process.[1] It is widely known for its critical analysis and evaluation of politicians and the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) in Ukraine. The organization provides a public familiarization of political culture and every individual legislator as well as candidates to the People's Deputies of Ukraine in the country.
Its logo is a clove of garlic, which was chosen as a "way for disinfection and fight with impure forces".[2]
The movement was started in late 2011[1] by a group of interested activists along with representatives of a partnership "New Citizen".[3] The movement was founded on 29 October 2011 exactly a year before the next parliamentary elections in Ukraine during the public action "Let's filter the parliament in 24 hours" (Ukrainian: Фільтруємо парламент за 24 години). The purpose is to activate the society in order to cleanse the future parliament from the ignominious deputies. Journalist Svitlana Zalishchuk is one of the founders of the movement.[4]
The public presentation of the movement took place on 9 December 2011, when Chesno members initiated the campaign "Filter the council" (Ukrainian: Фільтруй раду).
On 23 July 2012, Chesno published its first results of monitoring, according to which only three parliamentary corresponded to the virtue criteria. Those were the vice-chairman of the parliament Mykola Tomenko, Oleksandr Hudyma, and the newly elected former Minister of Economy (Fokin Government) Volodymyr Lanovyi.
On 16 October 2012, Chesno published its results of monitoring for the deputy candidates who run at the electoral districts of the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[5] In the parliament elected in that election several deputies at the request of Chesno regularly report on their activities in parliament.[6]
