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DIMAPUR — The office of deputy commissioner and district election officer, Kohima, informed 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.
It stated that such advertisements in the last stage of the election vitiate the entire election process. It added that the affected candidates and parties will not have any opportunity of providing clarification/rebuttal in such cases, a DIPR report stated.
Therefore, 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, has directed that no political party or candidate or any other organisation or person should publish any advertisement in the print media on poll day and one day prior to poll day unless the contents of political advertisements are pre-certified by them from the MCMC committee at the state/district level, as the case may be.
Report stated that it would apply in the case of political advertisements to be published in the print media in circulation in the state going to poll.
The restricted days (poll day and one day prior to poll day) for Nagaland state are the April 18 and 19, it stated.
Further, applicants are asked to apply to MCMC not later than two days prior to the proposed date of publication of advertisement.