The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday issued an advisory to all political parties reiterating its instructions regarding the requirement of pre-certification of political ads in print media and timelines for pre-certification of ads.
The poll body said that “no political party or candidate will publish any advertisement in the print media on poll day and one day prior to poll day unless the contents of political advertisement are pre-certified by them from the Media Certification and monitoring Committee (MCMC) at the state/district level”.
A copy of the advisory along with ECI instructions were also endorsed to Editors of the local dailies in context of provision contained in Part (A) para (2) (xii) of Press Council’s Norms of Journalistic Conduct. It says that “an editor shall be responsible for all matters, including advertisements published in the newspaper. If responsibility is disclaimed, this shall be explicitly stated beforehand”.
The applicants have to apply to MCMC no later than two days prior to the proposed date of publication of advertisement on poll day and one day prior to poll day. The ECI issued instructions on March 31 regarding the requirement of pre-certification of political ads in print media and timelines for pre-certification of ads thereof.
The Commission advisory to political parties noted that as there are still 24 hours for the pre-certification timeline to come into being, they reiterate that the spirit underlying its instruction of March 31 needs to be adhered to by the political parties.
“…instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature published in print media have been brought to the notice of the Commission in the past. Such advertisements in the last stage of the election vitiate the entire election process. The affected candidates and parties will not have any opportunity of providing clarification/rebuttal in such cases,” the poll body said.
The advisory noted that based on the record before the ECI, including the response from the political party, the option of extending the pre-certification deadline to a larger period was considered.
“However, given the shortness of time regarding the remaining campaign period, the ECI has refrained from taking such a step.”
The 48-hour period before the voting is called the silence period and no advertisement can be done during this period. During the Tripura polls, held in February, the ECI even issued notices to parties for breaching the silence period on social media. The political parties and their candidates were reportedly putting up tweets asking voters to vote in their favor or vote out incumbents.
‘MAINTAIN CLEAN AND SERIOUS CAMPAIGN DISCOURSE’
The ECI also reiterated that the instructions of a clean and serious campaign discourse should be understood and maintained by all stakeholders at all times during the campaign period, regardless of the timeline of pre-certification for advertisement in print media.
In terms of advertisements and averments made during the campaign, attention of political parties was again drawn to Clause 4.4.2(B) (v) of Model Code of Conduct, which says that “other parties or their workers will not be criticised based on unverified allegations or distortions”.
The Commission noted that in continuation and independently of the above, the ECI, given the shortness of the remaining campaigning period, ex-facie notes the concern that national parties and star campaigners are duty bound to adhere to the expected standards of campaign discourse.
On Saturday, the ECI issued a notice to KPCC President D. K. Shivakumar for publishing an advertisement titled ‘corruption rate card’ in newspapers in Karnataka with “unsubstantiated information with respect to alleged rates” cited for appointments and transfers, kinds of jobs and commissions by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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