The code of conduct published by the Election Commission has allowed candidates of upcoming election to begin their publicity campaigns only 17 days prior to the voting date.
As per the commission, the reason to reduce the publicity duration is aimed at bringing down spendings by the candidates amid concerns that politicians are spending a lot of money on the campaigns.
The election date has been announced for November 20, the candidates will only be able to start their promotion and publicity campaigns from November 3. As there is a rule of 48-hour election silence, candidates will only have 15 days for election promotion.
The nomination filing date for the candidates is October 8-9 and the Election Commission will publish the final list till October 20.
According to Clause 13 (1Y) of the code of conduct, the candidates can perform acts of publicity such as mass gatherings, broadcasting publicity materials in media and door-to-door campaigns only from November 3. However, questions revolving around the practicality of such timing is rising among political parties.
In general, the code of conduct comes into effect 35 days prior to the poll date and publicity campaigns start from the same date too.
