Shimla: With the growing use of social media, now Election Commission has also opted its usages and directed political parties to publish the information of candidates’ criminal cases (if any) on party official Facebook and Twitter handle.
“Candidate who has either pending criminal cases or who have been convicted in the past are required to publish the declaration within 48 hours of selection of the candidate and not prior to two weeks before the first date of filing of nomination whichever is earlier,” Chief Electoral Officer C. Paulrasu informed the political parties’ representatives in the Election Expenditure Monitoring meeting, here on Thursday.
Political parties will have to upload the information regarding candidates with pending criminal cases, along with the reason for such selection on their official website.
“Information should be published in one local newspaper, one national newspaper and official social media platform of the political party including Facebook and Twitter,” Paulrasu further added.
The concerned political party is also directed to submit a report of compliance with the Election Commission within 72 hours of the selection. Candidates who have either pending criminal cases or have been convicted in the past are required to publish the declaration regarding such criminal cases in newspapers and TV channels on three occasions during the campaign period.
The election commission has also restricted the limit on the number of star campaigners for recognized National and State Political parties to 20 and 10 respectively during the period of a pandemic.
Fatehpur, Arki, Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly Constituencies and Mandi Parliamentary Constituency are scheduled to go into by-elections on 30 October.
