Punjab Election Date and Advertisement Guidelines Announced
The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced today that the election for the 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly will be held on February 4, 2017.
As per the instructions of the ECI, the media certification and monitoring committees (MCMCs) will scrutinize political advertisements on TV channels, cable networks, and radio including the private FM channels.
The Commission also has widened the area of certification by including cinema halls for political advertisement. Audio-visual displays of political advertisement / campaign material in public places will require certification under the existing orders of the Commission.
It is also stated that use of bulk SMSs / voice messages in political campaigning should also require certification under the existing orders of the Commission to be done by the designated committees.
[ Also Visit: Save Punjab – Punjab Election News 2017 ]
The Commission has issued detailed guidelines on social media on October, 25, 2013, which mentions about furnishing details of social media accounts by the candidates during filing of nominations.
The Commission also brought the political advertisements to be issued on social media sites under the purview of pre-certification.
The Commission further instructed that candidates and political parties shall include all expenditure on campaigning, including expenditure on advertisements on social media, both for maintaining a correct account of expenditure and for submitting the statement of expenditure.
The Commission has further clarified that any political content in the form of messages / comments / photos / videos posted / uploaded on the blogs / self-accounts on websites / social media will not be treated as political advertisements and therefore would not require pre-certification.
However, advertisements issued in e-paper shall invariably require pre-certification by the concerned Committee.
Photo courtesy: Chief Electoral Office (CEO) Punjab
