Poll panel puts curbs on political ads for 3, 4 Feb

The Election Commission of India on Thursday directed that no political party, candidate, organisation or any person will publish any advertisement in print media on 3 and 4 February unless the contents of the proposed advertisement have been pre-certified by the political parties and candidates on the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) committee.

This came as many instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature have brought to the Election Commission's notice in the past.

A similar direction has been issued to all the newspapers in Goa and Punjab asking them not to publish any advertisement in the print media on the same dates which unless pre-certified by the MCMC.

The commission further said that in order to facilitate the process of pre-certification of the newspaper advertisements and as instructed above, MCMC at state/district level be immediately alerted and activated in order to examine and pre-certified all such advertisements received from the political parties, candidates and others.

"It should also be ensured that the decision by MCMC in such cases is made expeditiously. The above direction of the Commission be brought to the notice of all president of all political parties contesting candidates and news papers in the state of Goa and Punjab and also be given wide publicity to all media of mass communication for general information and strict compliance," the commission said.