Article 324 is the provision in our Constitution that empowers the Election Commission with the authority to conduct elections fairly and efficiently. They have wide powers which influence the manner elections are conducted in our country for the Parliament and State Legislatures. It can take every possible step to securely organize elections in the biggest democracy in the world. When it comes to the media, the Election Commission has the responsibility to ensure that they don’t meddle with election results. As the influence of the media is extremely overpowering and manipulative, the Election Commission’s job has become a lot more complex in this day and age. They have taken steps forward when it comes to controlling the unfair manipulative control of the media. The first such significant order related to the media’s coverage of elections was passed by the EC in 1996. It was Order 491/96/MCS that provided facilities for media persons to cover the election process. This order was the first sign shown by the Election Commission recognising the impact of television and how important a role it can play in a democracy such as ours. The positive impacts can be the dissemination of information and spreading awareness. By doing this, the Election Commission set up a model code of conduct in 1996. The order was quite comprehensive in nature covering various aspects like voting pattern analysis, opinion polls and political debates among various things.

This was followed by another step order a couple of years later in 1998 when Order Number ECI/PN/98/05 covered important aspects regarding the use of government-owned media by political parties to push their views and agendas. The order was not as comprehensive as the earlier one but it did address the issue of air time regulation. These orders, when seen now retrospectively, don’t seem a lot but they were enough to create a positive impact according to the needs of the time. If internet penetration and electronic media’s reach of the 90s is measured, it wasn’t a big concern then. As for social media platforms, they did not even exist at the time. Election campaigning mainly centred around the door to door campaigns, printed leaflets and limited electronic media that was available at the time. Social media changed everything, from how they perceived their lifestyles to how they gauged images of political parties.

A relatively new phenomenon emerged with the advent of Opinion and Exit Polls. Order Number ECI/MCS/98/01 consisted of details and guidelines as to how Opinion and Exit Polls should be published for the dissemination of their results. The Election Commission took inspiration from Canadian laws which already had provisions for circulation of Opinion and Exit Polls. They commented on the influential reach of these polls and therefore, were deemed to be important enough to be regulated. The order passed by the EC addressed its regulation with cogent guidelines which included the restriction of conducting any such polls 2 days before the start of the election. Similarly, for exit polls, it was stated that they couldn’t be published until half an hour after the end of elections.