Poll campaign bulk SMS, recorded messages come under EC lens

Political parties and candidates will now have to get pre-certification of bulk SMS and recorded voice messages from poll authorities before sending it to voters as part of their election campaign.
Based on an April, 2004 order of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission has already made it mandatory for all registered political parties and candidates to get a pre-certification of all political advertisements on media platforms before publication or broadcast.
The latest EC order issued yesterday states that it has now been decided to "monitor" the contents of such bulk SMS to voters during election period "so that objectionable contents are not transmitted through this medium".

The Commission made it clear that as per law, the medium of SMS "is also part of electronic media by definition".
The poll watchdog took the decision after taking cognisance of the fact that candidates and parties often use bulk SMS facility and recorded voice messages as a means of campaign.
"This feature (bulk SMS) may also be sometimes misused for sending malicious and vilifying materials in political campaigning and thereby violating electoral and criminal laws and Model Code of Conduct," the EC order said.
In November 2008, the EC had directed police to monitor bulk SMS and their inclusion in election expenditures of the candidates.

Candidates are required to submit the copies of their electronic and print campaign materials at the office of chief electoral officer (CEO) and disclose their IDs/ accounts on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube for monitoring.