It said that instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature published in print media have been brought to the notice of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the past and 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 or rebuttal in such cases.

“In order to ensure that such instances are not repeated, and no untoward incident takes place because of any inflammatory, misleading or hate advertisements, ECI, in exercise of its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, and all other powers enabling it in this behalf, hereby directs that no political party or candidate or any other organisation or person shall publish any advertisement in the print media on the election day and one day prior to the election day i.e. November 6 and 7, unless the contents of the advertisement proposed to be published by the political parties, candidates etc are pre-certified by them from the MCMC at the state and district level,” said the notice.

It is further directed that in order to facilitate the process of pre-certification of the newspaper advertisements and as instructed above, MCMC at state or district level 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 direction of the commission may be brought to the notice of presidents of all political parties, contesting candidates and newspapers in the state and also given wide publicity to all media houses for general information and strict compliance, stated the notice.

(DIPR)