AGENCIES
Election Commission has barred the political parties, candidates and other organizations from publishing an advertisement in print media on the poll day and one day prior to poll day in all the election phases unless approved by it.
The Commission said, to facilitate the process of pre-certification of advertisements, the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee at the state and district levels be immediately ed and activated to examine and pre- certify all such advertisements received from the political parties.
The Election commission has said that such advertisements in the last stage of the election vitiate the entire election process. It has written a letter to all the Chief Electoral Officers of States and has asked to issue directions to all political parties, candidates and newspapers in this regard.
The commission said, the affected candidates and parties will not have any opportunity of providing clarification in such cases. The Poll body said, to ensure that no untoward incident takes place because of any inflammatory or hate advertisements, it is using its constitutional powers to direct that no political party will publish any advertisement in the print media on the day and one day prior to poll day in all the phases.
For the first time internet – based firms have also voluntarily adopted the norms for online campaign to ensure free, fair and ethical usage of Social Media Platforms to maintain the integrity of the electoral process.