The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued a fresh advisory to all political parties to maintain decorum and utmost restraint in public campaigning and raise the level of election campaigning to “issue” based debate.
This comes after the ECI took note of the various trends and cases of plummeting levels of political campaign discourse in recently held elections.
The Commission has also put the Star Campaigners and candidates on a ‘notice’ in case of violations that followed the previously known methodologies during elections to avoid MCC.
The ECI will assess any indirect MCC violations as per advisory as a fair basis to re-work the notices to be given in terms of time and content in issue in the forthcoming elections. For the General Election to Lok Sabha and General Election to four State Legislative Assemblies, all phases and geographical areas of elections shall be the basis to determine “repeat” offenses.
Advisory to Political Parties, candidates, and Star Campaigners issued by ECI
No appeal shall be made on the basis of caste/communal feelings of the electors. No activity, which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes/communities/religious/linguistic groups, shall be attempted.
The political parties and leaders shall not make false statements, utterances without factual basis aimed at misleading the voters. Criticism of other parties or their workers on the basis of unverified allegations or on distortions shall be avoided.
No aspect of the private life, not connected with the public activities, of the leaders or workers of other parties is to be criticised. Low level personal attacks to insult the rivals shall not be made.
No temples/mosques/churches/gurudwaras or any places of worship are to be used for election propaganda or electioneering. References which ridicule the relations between devotee and deity or suggestions of divine censure shall not be made.
The political parties and candidates to refrain from any deeds/action/utterances that may be construed as being repugnant to the honour and dignity of women.
Unverified and misleading advertisements are not to be given in the media.
Advertisements masquerading as news items are not to be given.
Social media posts vilifying and insulting the rivals or posts which are in bad taste or which are below dignity are not to be posted or shared.
The Commission has further urged all the political parties, their leaders, and the contesting candidates to remain within the confines of the Model Code of Conduct and the legal framework. It has been emphasized that any genres of surrogate or indirect violation of MCC and surrogate means to plumate level of the election campaign will be dealt with stern action by the Commission.
