The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday requested all political events and candidates to get clearance from the media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC) earlier than publishing any commercial within the print media on the date of polling and a day prior.

Days forward of the essential May 10 meeting elections in Karnataka, ECI wrote to editors of all main newspapers within the state, holding them answerable for any commercial printed of their newspapers.

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“An editor shall be responsible for all matters, including advertisements, published in the newspaper. If responsibility is disclaimed, this shall be explicitly stated beforehand,” the ECI mentioned in a letter to editors of newspapers in Karnataka, citing the Press Council of India’s norms for journalistic conduct.

The ballot panel additionally shared the advisory issued to political events with editors of all newspapers.

Polling for the 224-member Karnataka meeting will probably be held on May 13 and counting of votes on May 13. Campaign for the high-stakes elections is about to finish on Monday.

“No political party or candidate or any other organisation 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 advertisement are got pre-certified by them from the MCMC at the state/district level, as the case may be,” ECI advisory to political events, issued on Sunday, mentioned.

This will not be the primary time the fee has directed the political events to pre-certify commercials. In April, it issued a stern discover to events to comply with the instructions.

“… 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,” ECI mentioned.

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ECI requested political events, candidates and newspapers within the state to use to the MCMC not less than two days previous to the publication of the commercial on ballot day and a day previous to ballot day.