M A I N   N E W S

EC for prior clearance of political ads

New Delhi, April 4
Faced with the ticklish issue of monitoring political advertisements in the wake of the Supreme Court directive, the Election Commission favours clearance of all such ads from it before these are telecast or published.

Observing it would be difficult to monitor the political advertisements on the vast cable network and TV channels as directed by the apex court, the commission is understood to have favoured this solution to tackle the issue.

EC sources said the commission was expected to give this response to the court tomorrow.

“All national and recognised political parties will have to submit advertisements for a pre-telecast clearance 10 days before the scheduled telecast,” the sources said.

A committee headed by a Deputy Election Commissioner would be set up to scrutinise all such advertisements for the print and electronic media.

As regards registered unrecognised parties, they could submit their political advertisements to the local Chief Electoral Officer, who would deal with the matter.

To stop “mudslinging” by parties during the elections, the apex court on April 2 banned telecast of all political advertisements on the cable network and TV channels that offend the “morality, decency and religious susceptibility” of viewers and asked the commission to monitor them.

The court also sought the response of the commission by tomorrow on the question whether the money spent on advertisements by a candidate for the election could be included in his election expenses, which has been limited to Rs 25 lakh per Lok Sabha constituency and Rs 10 lakh for assembly seats.

The issue of monitoring political advertisements was discussed at a meeting of the full Election Commission late last night as soon as the two Election Commissioners, Mr B.B. Tandon and Mr N. Gopalaswami returned from Srinagar.

The sources said the issue of personalised attacks during electioneering and the political advertisements would come up for discussion during the all-party meeting convened by the commission on April 6.

The meeting would also discuss issues like opinion and exit polls conducted by various agencies in the run-up to the elections. — PTI