EC issues notice for vetting political advertisements during polls

Dimapur, October 20 (EMN): The Election Commission of India (EC) has directed that no political party or candidate or any other organization or person shall publish any advertisement in the print media on poll days and one day prior to polling, unless the contents of the advertisement proposed to be published are pre-certified by the MCMC committee.

The EC has informed that instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature published in the print media have been brought to the notice of the commission in the past, the department of Information and Public Relations (IPR) stated on Tuesday in an update.

“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 IPR stated.

‘In order to ensure that such instances are not repeated, and no untoward incident takes place because of any inflammatory, misleading or hate advertisements, the commission, in exercise of its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, and all other powers enabling it has directed that no political party or candidate or any other organization or person shall publish any advertisement in the print media on poll day and one day prior to poll day i/c 2 & 3rd November, 2020, unless the contents of the advertisement proposed to be published by the political parties, candidates etc. are got (sic) pre-certified by them from the MCMC committee at the state/district level, as the case may be, in your state.’

Further, it directed that in order to facilitate the process of pre-certification of the newspaper advertisements and as instructed, the MCMC at state/district levels ‘be immediately alerted and activated in order to examine and pre-certify all such advertisements received from the political parties and candidates and others.’

It should also be ensured that the decision by MCMC is made expeditiously, the IPR stated.

“The above direction of the commission may be brought to the notice of presidents of all political parties, contesting candidates and newspapers in the states and also given wide publicity to all media of mass communication for general information and strict compliance.”

These directions shall come into force immediately, the IPR stated.