General election to Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, 2019 – Pre-certification of Political Advertisements in Print Media on the day of poll & one day prior to poll

All States and Union Territories

Subject: – General election to Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, 2019 – Pre- certification of Political Advertisements in Print Media on the day of poll & one day prior to poll– regarding.

Sir,

     I am directed to state that instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature published in print media have been brought to the notice of the Commission in the past. 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/rebuttal in such cases.

2. In order to ensure that such instances are not repeated, and no untoward incident takes place because of any inflammatory, misleading or hate advertisements, the Commission, 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 Organization or Person shall publish any Advertisement in the print media on poll day and one day prior to poll day in all the phases, unless the contents of political advertisements are got Pre-certified by them from the MCMC Committee at the State/District level, as the case may be. This will apply in the case of political advertisements to be published in the print media in circulation in the State/UTs going to poll in the phases as given below:

Phase and Date of poll	Restricted Days( poll day & one day prior to poll day)
First Phase- 11th April, 2019	10th and 11th April, 2019
Second Phase – 18th April, 2019	17th and 18th April, 2019
Third Phase – 23rd April, 2019	22nd and 23rd April, 2019
Fourth Phase – 29th April, 2019	28th and 29th April, 2019
Fifth Phase – 6th May, 2019	5th and 6th May, 2019
Sixth Phase – 12th may, 2019	11th and 12th May, 2019
Seventh Phase – 19th may, 2019	18th and 19th May, 2019

3. 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/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.

4. The above 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 of Mass Communication for general information and strict compliance.

5. These directions shall come into force immediately.

6. A copy of the instruction issued in this behalf may be endorsed to the Commission urgently.

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