Campaigning for the parliamentary polls will formally end before 8:00 am Friday, 48 hours prior to the December 30 polling date, with the Election Commission (EC) vowing for a free and fair voting. However, the Election Commission (EC) did not issue any guideline for media whether it will be allowed any direct or indirect electioneering in the name of live talk-show during the days of 'election silence'.
Political advertising and media campaigning during the time of silence remain among other issues having a desirable regulatory framework in the country, especially considering the polarised and hostility-prone intellectuality. In many contemporary democracies one of the very important aspects of popular votes is election silence, a specific legal time, which usually begins before 24 or 48 hours the voting day and ends at the end of voting.
It is a ban on political campaigning prior to general election practiced in many countries in order to balance out the campaigning and maintain a free voting environment. This allows voters to make their final decision 'in silence' and not be distracted by political ads or agitations. Election silence has been introduced in the countries in order to help voters in making reasonable choice and allow them for appropriate, that is quiet, without trying to influence them by individual electoral committees, conditions to decide on election.
Voters should evaluate calmly the political offer, give it a careful consideration, rethink their decision in conditions which are free of electioneering. The assumption of election silence is to provide a chance for reflection and deliberation on whom to vote in the election.
The United States does not practice election silence, but many countries have specific bans on when campaigning can stop before the election day. The political agitation in the internet is also forbidden during the election silence, though in some countries it is understood as a restriction of freedom of speech.
The Indian EC is used to impose complete prohibition on broadcasting or propagating election-related material on TV, Radio or even newspapers during the cooling days.
In Russia, pre-election campaigning on television and radio channels, in periodicals and online publications stops at 00:00 local time of the day before the voting day.
The country observed a single day pre-election silence ahead of the presidential election on March 18 this year. The pre-election day of silence in Russia started at midnight on March 17 with internet agitation stopping even earlier, on March 16 at 3 p.m.
Some of the most developed democracies and exemplary open societies like Sweden, Norway or France have different levels of restrictions of political advertising, including even the total ban of it. For example, in Hungary, Philippines, Poland, Spain, and Ukraine there is a ban starting from midnight on the day preceding election day. In some countries the pre-election silence begins earlier, usually from 24 hours to 48 hours before opening the polls.
The silence is generally legally enforced, though in some countries it is just a "gentlemen's agreement" between leading parties or a "this is how it has always been done" agreement, between parties. During the electoral silence in Poland, it is forbidden to give pre-election polls results on the predicted voting behaviour and election results to the public and the results of election surveys carried out on the voting day. The ban on electioneering is in force throughout the country, also on Polish websites and mass media.
The EC of Poland in one of its documents published in 2010 provided guidelines on how to keep silence. The ban on campaigning during the election silence also includes any internet activity. The Indian EC, on June 18 this year, requested Facebook to block all political ads on its platform 48 hours before polls. Section 126 of the Indian election law 'Representation of the People' prohibits displaying any election matter by means, inter alia, of television or similar apparatus, during the period of 48 hours before the hour fixed for conclusion of poll in a constituency.
In 2016, the Indian EC proposed an amendment to include "print media" in the ban under Section 126, as currently only digital media comes under election silence so that no political agitation are conducted in the cyberspace. The Indian EC in January this year set up a panel to suggest amendments to a provision in the election law barring campaigning 48 hours ahead of polling.
