{"id":227167,"date":"2023-02-18T19:26:40","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T13:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=227167"},"modified":"2023-02-18T19:26:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T13:56:40","slug":"ec-needs-a-smart-focus-cooling-off-periods-are-impractical-in-social-media-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/ec-needs-a-smart-focus-cooling-off-periods-are-impractical-in-social-media-age\/","title":{"rendered":"EC Needs A Smart Focus – Cooling-off periods are impractical in social media age"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cEC Needs A Smart Focus – Cooling-off periods are impractical in social media age\u201d <\/strong>published in The Times of India <\/b>on\u00a018th February 2023<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 2 \u2013 Indian Constitution\u2014historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About cooling-off periods before polls.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The Election Commission has issued notices to representatives of political parties for their controversial tweets during the polling day and the day before the Tripura assembly election.<\/p>\n

What is the reason behind the Election Commission’s notice?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The EC notice says that the tweets violate parts of Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The Act prohibits electioneering 48 hours ahead of polling<\/strong>. The aim is to allow voters to decide without being \u201cprejudiced\u201d by last-minute appeals.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges in enforcing cooling-off periods before polls?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The restriction on electioneering before polls are impossible to enforce in the age of social media and rapidly evolving communications technology.<\/p>\n

EC fEC Needs A Smart Focus – Cooling-off periods are impractical in social media ageed a committee four years ago to look into the issue. But the committee\u2019s suggestions were largely in the nature of exhortations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: Australia has a similar provision called the blackout period. Australia also has issues in enforcing the blackout period and different media platforms are mentioning the blackout period as unfair.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Election Commission\u2019s initiative to enfranchise migrant voters is a step in the right direction<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What should be done to address the challenges in cooling-off periods before polls?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

EC’s credibility lies in conducting complex multiphase elections in the world\u2019s largest democracy. In such a scenario, retaining the cooling-off period may end up undermining EC\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n

Hence, Parliament needs to trust the maturity of voters and should get rid of the cooling-off period.\u00a0This will help EC to focus on its core responsibility of conducting elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: How to cement the Election Commission\u2019s credibility<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cEC Needs A Smart Focus – Cooling-off periods are impractical in social media age\u201d published in The Times of India on\u00a018th February 2023. Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Indian Constitution\u2014historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure. Relevance: About cooling-off periods before polls. News: The Election Commission… Continue reading EC Needs A Smart Focus – Cooling-off periods are impractical in social media age<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10496],"class_list":["post-227167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}