The Election Commission Has Tightened The Standards

The Election Commission has tightened the standards for promoting criminal records of candidates, know what are the new rules. Before the Bihar Legislative Assembly elections, the Election Commission on Friday tightened the standard of publicity of the criminal background of the candidates.

The commission has set a deadline for the publication and broadcast of such advertisements during elections. The Election Commission had issued a directive in October 2018 mandating that candidates contesting elections and contesting parties will advertise their criminal background thrice during elections and in TV and newspapers.

The Commission has made it clear that the first publicity of criminal records will have to be done within four days from the last date of withdrawal of the candidate’s name. The second promotion shall be done within the fifth and eighth day of the last date of withdrawal of nomination.

The third and final campaign will have to be done between the ninth day of the last date of withdrawal, between the last day of the campaign (two days before the vote). The Commission says that this deadline will help voters to make choices with more information.

Now, according to this guideline of the Election Commission, the new deadline is to be followed while advertising about their criminal record to the candidates trying their luck in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections and by-elections in 64 assembly and one Lok Sabha seat in the coming days.

Recently, the Commission had made it clear that the pending by-elections in one Lok Sabha seat and 64 seats of Legislative Assemblies in 15 states and Bihar Assembly elections will be held at the same time.

The Commission says that the term of the 243-member Legislative Assembly in Bihar ends on November 29 and elections need to be held before this date. The by-election is also to be held in Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat in Bihar. It is believed that elections can be held in October-November.

However, no official date has been announced by the Commission in this regard. By-elections are also to be held in 64 vacant seats of assemblies in other states. Of these, Madhya Pradesh has 27 seats. For this, the Congress has also announced the names of its 15 candidates.