NEW DELHI: Allotment of telecast time to political parties in order to conduct election campaigns on All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD) during elections will now be done online. This follows the Election Commission of India (ECI) amending its existing scheme on the use of government-owned electronic media by political parties.
With this facilitation, the political parties will not be required to send their representatives to ECI or chief electoral officer offices for collection of the time vouchers physically during the election. It reflects the commission’s commitment to leveraging technology for the betterment of the electoral process and ease of all stakeholders, said a statement issued by the Election Commission.
“Recognising the advancements in technology, the commission has been providing IT-based options for interface with political parties. Recently, the commission also introduced a web portal for online filing of financial accounts by political parties with the ECI,” the commission added.
The scheme for political parties to carry out campaigns on state-owned television and radio channel was introduced under direction of the ECI during the 1998 general election. Subsequently, it was extended to all elections to state assemblies.
It was formulated after extensive consultations with recognised national and state parties and is aimed at ensuring equitable access to government-owned electronic media during polls for campaigning.
Extra time
Under the Election Commission’s scheme, an equitable base time is allotted to each national and recognised state party uniformly on DD and AIR. The additional time allotted to the parties is decided on the basis of the poll performance of the parties in the previous elections.