The Election Commission has issued a new set of guidelines for declaring criminal history by nominees and political parties regarding the candidates nominated by them for elections.
The modified instructions mandate the candidates and the political parties nominating the candidates with criminal background to publish the details of the criminal antecedents, if any, in newspapers and television.
Election Commission of India issues revised guidelines for publishing details of criminal antecedents by candidates &, the political parties regarding candidates nominated by them. pic.twitter.com/kLWbsI1V3E
— ANI (@ANI) September 11, 2020
Contesting and uncontested candidates to publicise their criminal antecedents
The Commission has provided a revised timeline for publicity, asking the candidates and political parties to publish first publicity of the details of the criminal antecedents within first 4 dates of the last date of withdrawal. The second publicity should be done within 5th to 8th day of the last date of withdrawal and the third publicity to be done from the 9th day till the last day of the campaign, i.e two days prior to the date of poll.
The Election Commission stated that the revised timeline for publicity will help voters to exercise their choice in a more informed manner.
The Poll committee has also asked the uncontested winning candidates as well as political parties nominating them to publicise the criminal antecedents, if any, in a similar manner as prescribed for other contesting candidates and political parties.
These modified instructions will be applied with immediate effect, a press release statement signed by Under Secretary Pawan Diwan noted.
