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I. General Conduct

(1) No party or candidate shall indulge in any activity which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony or which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic and disturb or is likely to disturb the public tranquility.

(2) Criticism of other political parties and contesting candidates, when made, shall be confined to their policies and programme, past record and work. Parties and candidates shall refrain from criticism of all aspects of private life, not connected with the public activities of the candidates, leaders or workers of other parties. Criticism of other candidates or their workers based on unverified allegations or on distortion shall be avoided.

(3) There shall be no appeal by a candidate or by any other person, to vote or refrain from voting on grounds of caste, race, community or religion or the use of or appeal to religious symbols, or the use of or appeal to national symbols such as the national flag or the national emblem for the furtherance of the prospects of that candidate’s election. Mosque, Churches, Temples or other places of worship shall not be used as forum for election propaganda.

 (4) All parties and candidates shall avoid scrupulously all activities which are “corrupt practices” and offences under the election law or any other law for the time being in force, , such as the bribing of voters, intimidation of voters, impersonation of voters, canvassing within 100 metres of polling station, holding public meetings on the day of poll and the transport and conveyance of voters to and from polling station.

(5) No political party, candidates, their supporters or workers shall put up hoardings, banners, buntings, posters at any public place/property.

(6) No political party or candidate shall permit its or his followers to make use of any individual’s land, building, compound wall etc. without his permission for erecting flag-staffs.

(7) No candidate, his agent, supporter or his worker or worker of a Political Party shall hold any meeting during course of election in which liquor or any other intoxicant is served.

(8) No person shall print or publish or cause to be printed or published any election pamphlet, poster, circular, placard etc. which does not bear on its face the names and addresses of the printer and the publisher thereof.

(9) Loudspeaker on vehicles for electioneering shall not be used without permission from the competent authority.

 II. Meetings

(1) A party or a candidate shall seek prior approval of the local police authorities, well in time, of the venue and time of any proposed meeting so as to enable the police to accord permission and to make necessary arrangements for controlling traffic and maintaining peace and order.

(2) A party or candidate shall ascertain in advance if there are any restrictive or prohibitory orders in force in the place proposed for the meeting. If such orders exist, they shall be followed strictly. If any exemption is required from such orders it shall be applied for and obtained well in time.

(3) If permission of license is to be obtained for the use of loudspeakers or any other facility in connection with any proposed meeting, the party or candidate shall apply to the authority concerned well in advance and obtain such permission or license.

 (4) Organizers of a meeting shall invariably seek the assistance of the police on duty for dealing with persons disturbing a meeting or otherwise attempting to create disorder. Organizers themselves shall not take action against such persons.

(5) The right of every individual for peaceful and undisturbed home life shall be respected, however much the political parties or candidates may resent his political opinions or activities. Organising demonstrations or picketing before the houses of individuals by way of protesting against their opinions or activities shall not be resorted to under any circumstances.

(6) Political parties and candidates shall ensure that their supporters do not create obstructions in or break up meetings and processions organised by the other parties. Workers or sympathizers of one political party shall not create disturbances at public meetings organized by another political party by putting questions orally or in writing or by distributing leaflets of their own party. Processions shall not be taken out by one party along places at which meetings are being held by another party. Posters issued by one party shall not be removed by workers of another party.

III. Processions

 (1) A party or candidate organizing a procession shall decide before hand the time and place of the starting of the processions, the route to be followed and the time and place at which the procession will terminate. There shall ordinarily be no deviation from the programme.

(2) The organizers shall give advance intimation to the local police authorities of the programme so as to enable the latter to make necessary arrangements.

(3) The organizers shall ascertain if any restrictive orders are in force in the localities through which the procession has to pass, and shall comply with the restrictions unless exempted specially by competent authority. Any traffic regulation or restriction shall also be strictly adhered to.

 (4) The organizers shall take steps in advance to arrange for passage of the procession so that there is no block or hindrance to traffic. If the procession is very long, it shall be organized in segments of suitable lengths so that at convenient intervals, especially at points where the procession has to pass road junctions, the passage of held-up traffic could be allowed by stages thus avoiding heavy traffic congestion.

(5) Processions shall be so regulated as to keep as much to the right of the road as possible and the direction and advice of the police on duty shall be strictly complied with.

(6) If two or more political parties or candidates propose to take processions over the same route or parts thereof at about the same time, the organizers shall establish contact well in advance and decide upon the measures to be taken to see that the processions do not clash or cause hindrance to traffic. The assistance of the local police shall be availed of for arriving at a satisfactory arrangement. For this purpose the parties shall contact the police at the earliest opportunity.

(7) The political parties or candidates shall exercise control to the maximum extent possible in the matter of processionists carrying articles which may be put to misuse by undesirable elements, especially in moments of excitement.

(8) The carrying of effigies purporting to represent members of other political parties or their leaders, burning such effigies in public and such other forms of demonstration shall not be countenanced by any political party or candidate or his agent, their supporters and workers.

IV. Polling Day

 All political parties and candidates shall –

(i) co-operate with the officers on election duty to ensure peaceful and orderly polling and complete freedom to the voters to exercise their franchise without being subjected to any annoyance or obstruction;

(ii) supply to their authorized workers suitable badges or identity cards;

(iii) ensure that the identity slips supplied by them to voters shall be on plain (white) papers and shall not contain any symbol, name of the candidate or the name of the party;

 (iv) refrain from serving or distributing liquor to voters or workers of a party or of a candidate.

(v) not allow unnecessary crowd to be collected near the camps set up by the political parties and candidates near the polling booths so as to avoid confrontation and tension among workers and sympathizers of the parties and candidate.

(vi) ensure that the candidate’s camps shall be simple. They shall not display any posters, flags, symbols or any other propaganda material. No eatables shall be served or crowds allowed at the camps; and

(vii) co-operate with the authorities in complying with the restrictions to be imposed on the plying of vehicles on the polling day and obtain permits for them which should be displayed prominently on those vehicles.

V. Polling Booth

Excepting the voters, public servants on election duty, persons authorized by the State Election Commission of NCT, Delhi, a person accompanying blind or infirm elector, candidate, his election agent or his polling agent no one can enter the polling booth.

VI. Counting Centres

No person other than candidates, their election/ counting agents, public servants on election duty or persons authorized by the State Election Commission shall enter the premises where counting centres are set up.

VII. Observers

The State Election Commission is appointing General and Expenditure Observers to see that the contesting candidates and the political parties do follow these instructions and other rules and regulations pertaining to the elections during the election process, Observers appointed by the Commission shall be submitting their day to day report to the Commission. If the candidates or their agents have any specific complaint or problem regarding the conduct of election they may bring the same to the notice of the observer.

VIII. Party in Power

The party in power whether at the Centre or in State shall ensure that no cause is given for any complaint that it has used its official position for the purposes of its election compaign, to influence the voters and in particular.

(i) (a) The Ministers shall not combine their official visit with electioneering work and shall not make use of official machinery or personnel during electioneering work;

(b) Government transport including official vehicles of public undertaking, its machinery and personnel shall not be used for furtherance of the interest of the party in power;

(c) official telephones including mobile phones, fax etc. shall not be used for electioneering purposes.

(ii) Public places such as maidens, park or public place etc., for holding election meetings, shall not be monopolized by itself. Other parties and candidates shall be allowed the use of such places and facilities on the same terms and conditions on which they are used by the party in power;

(iii) Rest house, dak bungalows or other Government accommodation shall not be monopolized by the party in power or its candidates and such accommodation shall be allowed to be used by other parties and candidates in a fair manner but no party or candidate shall use or be allowed to use such accommodation (including premises appertaining thereto) as a campaign office or for holding any public meeting for the purposes of election propaganda;

(iv) Issue of advertisement at the cost of public exchequer in the news papers and other media and the misuse of official mass-media during the election period for partisan coverage of political news and publicity regarding achievements with a view to furthering the prospects of the party in power shall be scrupulously avoided.

(v) Ministers and other authorities shall not sanction grants/ payments out of discretionary funds from the time elections are announced by the Commission; and

 (vi) From the time the elections are announced by the Commission, Ministers and other authorities shall not –

 (a) announce any financial grants in any form or promises thereof; or

(b) lay foundation stones etc. of projects or schemes of any kind; or

(c) make any promise of construction of roads, provision of drinking water facilities etc.; or

 (d) make any promotions, ad hoc appointments etc. in Government, public undertakings etc.; which may have the effect of influencing the voters in favour of the party in power.

(vii) Ministers of Central or State Government shall not enter any polling station or place of counting except in their capacity as a candidate or voter or authorized agent.

 (S. P. MARWAH)

 State Election Commissioner
 National Capital Territory of Delhi

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