Model Code of Conduct
About Model Code of Conduct
■ Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission to regulate political parties and their candidates before elections and to ensure free and fair elections.
What is the model code of conduct?
It is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission to regulate political parties and candidates before elections.It empowers the Election Commission to supervise and conduct free and fair elections to Parliament and State Legislatures.
Main objective: To ensure that parties in power at the Center and States do not misuse their position to gain undue advantage
■ The Model Code of Conduct is in accordance with Article 324 of the Indian Constitution. Under which the Election Commission has been given the power to monitor and conduct free and fair elections in the Parliament and State Assemblies.
■ According to the rules, the Model Code of Conduct comes into force from the date the election is announced by the Election Commission and remains in force till the date the election results are declared.
■ Political parties or candidates can be criticized only on the basis of their functional record and no caste and communal sentiments can be used to woo voters.
■Holding public meetings during the period of 48 hours before the time fixed for closing of polls is also prohibited.
■The 48-hour period is known as “election silence.” This is meant to allow voters a campaign-free environment to consider events before casting their vote.
Background of model code of conduct
■ The Model Code of Conduct was first introduced in the year 1960 during the Kerala Assembly elections, when the state administration prepared a ‘Code of Conduct’ for political parties and their candidates. In this code prepared by the Kerala administration, instructions were given to political parties regarding election meetings, speeches and slogans etc.
■ After this, in the Lok Sabha elections of 1962, the Election Commission sent a draft code of conduct to all the recognized political parties and state governments for feedback, after which it is being followed by all the political parties across the country.
■ In the year 1979, the Election Commission included guidelines related to the ruling party in the Model Code of Conduct to prevent the ruling party from gaining unfair advantage during elections. After this, in the year 1991, it was decided to implement the Model Code of Conduct more strictly.• In the year 2013, the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission to include guidelines related to election manifesto in the Model Code of Conduct, which was included in the year 2014.
Provisions under Model Code of Conduct
■ General conduct: Criticism of political parties should be limited only to their policies, programmers, past records and work. Activities like hurting caste and communal sentiments, criticizing candidates on the basis of unverified reports, bribing or intimidating voters and holding demonstrations or picketing outside someone’s house opposing his views are strictly prohibited.
■ Meeting: All political parties should inform the local administration and police about the place and time of the meeting before organizing any of their meetings so that adequate security arrangements can be ensured during the meeting.
■ Procession: If two or more parties or candidates plan to take out a procession on the same route, the organizers should contact each other in advance to avoid any kind of conflict. The effigy of any political party leader should not be burnt during such a procession.
■ Voting: Workers of all parties should be given appropriate badges or identity cards at polling stations. The slip given to the voters by the electoral party leaders will be on plain (white) paper and will not contain any symbol, name of the candidate or name of the party.
■ Polling Day: On the polling day, all political parties and candidates should cooperate with the officials on election duty to ensure peaceful and orderly polling.
Parties should avoid distributing liquor on the day of voting and 48 hours before it.
■ Polling stations: Only voters and people with valid passes from the Election Commission are allowed to enter polling stations.
■ Observers: Observers will be appointed by the Election Commission to whom any candidate can report problems regarding the conduct of the elections.
■ Ruling Party: The Election Commission had introduced certain restrictions in the Model Code of Conduct in 1979 to regulate the conduct of the ruling party.
Ministers should not combine official visits with election work or use official machinery for the same.
The party should avoid using official mass media for advertising or campaigning at the expense of the public exchequer
Other parties should be allowed to use public places and rest houses and these should not be monopolized by the ruling party
Legal enforcement of model code of conduct
■ Although the Model Code of Conduct is not legally enforced, i.e. a person violating the Code of Conduct cannot be legally punished, some of its provisions are incorporated in the Indian Penal Code, 1860; Can be implemented through Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and Representation of the People Act, 1951 etc.
■ It is noteworthy that in the year 2013, the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice had recommended making the Model Code of Conduct legally binding and making it a part of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.However, the Election Commission itself is not in favor of legally implementing the Model Code of Conduct.
■ The Election Commission argues that the period for completing the elections is relatively short and judicial proceedings take a lot of time, hence in practice it is not possible to implement the Model Code of Conduct legally.
What restrictions does the Model Code of Conduct impose?
■ It has eight provisions related to general operations, meetings, processions, polling day, polling stations, observers, ruling party and election manifesto.
■ As soon as the Code comes into force, the ruling party – whether at the Center or in the State – must ensure that it does not use its official position for publicity.
Therefore, no such policy, project or scheme can be announced which can influence the voting behavior.
■ The party should also avoid using official mass media to advertise at the expense of the public exchequer or to publicize achievements t improve its chances of victory in elections.
■ The code also says that ministers should not combine official visits with election work nor should they use official machinery for this purpose.
■ The party should also avoid using official mass media to advertise at the expense of the public exchequer or to publicize achievements to improve its chances of victory in elections.
■ The code also says that ministers should not combine official visits with election work nor use the official machinery for this purpose.Should be used.
■ The ruling party cannot use government transport or machinery for campaigning.
Conclusion:-
It is a set of guidelines issued by the ECI to regulate political parties and candidates before elections. It helps the Election Commission in keeping with the mandate given under Article 324 of the Constitution, which empowers it to monitor and conduct free and fair elections to the Parliament and State Legislatures.
It remains in force from the date of announcement of the election schedule till the date of declaration of results.Although the Model Code of Conduct has no statutory backing, it has gained strength over the last decade due to its strict enforcement by the Election Commission. Some of its provisions may be enforced by invoking relevant provisions in other statutes such as -•Indian Penal Code, 1860 •Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and •Representation of the People Act.
