2015: INEC tightens regulations on political adverts, campaigns

Ahead of the 2015 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission on Friday stated that it had revised the regulations contained in its Code of Conduct governing political advertisements and campaigns with a view to ensuring strict compliance by parties and their candidates.The INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, stated this in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of an international seminar with the theme: “Political Advertising, Perception Building and Voter Education,” organized by the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria.According to him, the seminar was an opportunity for advertisers to reach out to politicians that “all expertise should be put to good use for the purposes of organizing very clean and positive campaigns that will help them win elections rather than the kind of uncivil campaigns that take place in our country.”He said, “It is very important that we regulate and sanitize our campaigns. A lot of that sanitation can be done without regulation if only politicians can change their attitudes and mindsets. But we in INEC have revised the regulations governing campaigns and we have already shared a draft of those guidelines to political parties.“We hope to finalize it and very soon, we will put it into effect so that political parties will know clearly where to draw the lines and the sanctions that would apply if they do not act according to the rules and regulations.“I think what this seminar has showed is that you can learn good practice from other countries and factor it into your own preparations. It is very important that we sanitize the electoral process and political campaigns. They should be research-based, well informed and expertise should be brought to bear in the preparation and conduct of political campaigns.”Also speaking, the National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, Chief Victor Umeh, said political advertising remained a very important aspect of electioneering process.“I urge advertising practitioners to go to INEC and collect the code of conduct already signed by political parties. The code of conduct is in a position to regulate what advertising practitioners will do. If you know that what somebody is telling you to project for him is offending the law and the rules, you will drop such materials and it is very critical that advert practitioners partner with INEC because they are very important stakeholders in this process,” he stated.The APGA chairman stated that the advertisements given out to the electorate will influence their decisions adding that If there is no regulation as to what political parties and their candidates were permitted to project to the electorate, “we will likely get wrong decisions.”