EC decides timeslots for parties for assembly elections

New Delhi, Jan 11 (UNI) The Election Commission in its meeting yesterday decided the timeslot for the purpose of radio broadcast and telecast of the views of registered and recognised national, regional and state political parties for the forthcoming assembly elections in Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

According to an EC release issued here today, the actual date and time for such programmes for the political parties would be decided in consultation with the Prasar Bharti Corporation (PBC). This will be subject to the broad technical constraints governing the actual time of transmission available with the Doordarshan and All India Radio, it added.

The entire programme will be strictly followed by the commission's prescribed guidelines for telecast and broadcast.

Accordingly, the parties will be required to submit transcripts and recording in advance. The parties can get this recorded at their own cost in studios, which meet the technical standards prescribed by the PBC or at the Doordarshan /All India Radio (AIR) by advance requests.

Apart from this, the PBC will organise a maximum of two panel discussions or debate on the Kendra/Station of Doordarshan or AIR.

Each eligible party can nominate one representative to such a programme.

The EC will approve the names of coordinators for such panel discussions and debate in consultations with the PBC.

The slot allotment will be provided to the political parties in the denominations of 5-minute duration vouchers each and the parties will be free to combine them suitably.

Accordingly, the BJP and the Congress both will get a total timeslot of 185 minutes each for AIR and Doordarshan in Uttarakhand.

However, the Congress will get a 175-minute slot in Punjab while the BJP will get only for 75 minutes and Shiromoni Akali Dal (SAD) will get 165 minutes.

Similarly, in Manipur the BJP will get 125 minutes while the Congress been alloted 160 minutes and NCP 100 minutes, the release added.

UNI