Shillong, Feb 25: The election campaigns for the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, to be held on February 27, 2023, have ended as the 48-hour mandatory ‘silent period’ prior to the polling came into effect on Saturday evening as per the Model Code of Conduct of Election Commission of India (ECI).

In order to ensure free and fair elections, the EC imposed the ‘silent period’ from 4 PM of February 25, 2023. During this period, political parties and individuals are barred from any and every kind of campaign. The same is also applicable to media, and it cannot publish or air any campaign material, election stories, opinion polls and advertisements issued by political parties and individuals.

A communication from the ECI, through the Meghalaya Chief Electoral Office (CEO), was sent to all media houses and many journalists on Saturday afternoon, reminding them not to carry any election campaign related material or story in any form.

The message from the ECI read: “No person shall display to the public any election matter by means of cinematograph, television or other similar apparatus in any polling area during the period of forty-eight hours ending with the hour fixed for the conclusion of the poll for any election in the polling area. Here “election matter” means any matter intended or calculated to influence or affect the result of an election.”

The same message was also issued through the State Directorate of Information and Public Relations.

The message here was clear on ‘election matter’, which included advertisements and news stories alike as these can easily influence voters. The only expectation is/are advertisements that have been pre-certified by the MCMC committee of the State/District level, which can be carried by the media.

Interestingly, after all the hullabaloo on the strict enforcement of the ECI guidelines against carrying publicity and campaign materials of political parties, the office of the Meghalaya CEO has approved political advertisements for two parties – BJP and Meghalaya TMC, to be published on various newspaper of the state on February 26 and 27, 2023.

Both the ads call upon people of the state to vote for their respective parties.

These advertisements and the permission granted for their publication should have been in contravention to the ECI’s own guidelines but they are ‘not’ as they are ‘pre-certified’.

In fact, a letter by the ECI to Chief Electoral Officers of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, dated February 9, 2023, clearly states: “…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, 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.”

The point is, if the political parties can get their political advertisements pre-certified to be published a day before and on the day of the polling, then what is the use of observing the ‘Silent Period’ for the media and if having such a guideline even serves any purpose.

Also, why is print media outside the purview of the guideline on ‘Silent Period’ and why does the ECI continue with this absurdity. On the contraty, Section 126 of the Representation of People Act prevents electronic media from airing political advertisements in the ‘silent period’ before elections.

Similar has been the story will all elections for some time in the country, and many parties have questioned the logic behind such pre-certified political ads, which defy the very nature and purpose of the ‘Silent Period’.

Actually, a committee appointed by the EC has suggested changes to Section 126 to extend the provisions under Section 126 to digital and print media. The EC has also written to the Law Ministry to amend Section 126 of the Representation of People Act, and it has been seeking this amendment since 2004, but the successive governments have continued to remain silent on this.