PESHAWAR: Candidates violating code of conduct for elections : Size of banners and billboards
By Waseem Ahmad Shah
PESHAWAR, Dec 9: Candi-dates of different political parties have been openly violating the election code of conduct (ECC) by putting up hoardings across the provincial capital which are larger than the size specified by the Election Commission.
With electioneering picking momentum here, candidates belonging to affluent families have been looking for hoardings at attractive spots to display their publicity material.
It is learnt that some of the advertisement companies are also hoodwinking their clients, mostly multinational companies, by displaying election banners on their billboards.
Under Section 83A(1) of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1976, no person or political party shall affix posters, hoardings or banners larger than the size prescribed by the Election Commission.
The Election Commission in Section 1(20) of the ECC has fixed the size of hoarding as 3 feet x 5 feet. Most of the candidates have affixed hoardings of sizes 10 feet x 20 feet. Some of the candidates have erected bigger billboards of the size 60 feet x 20 feet.
Section 83A(4) empowers district nazims and returning officers to implement this law in areas of their jurisdictions.
Moreover, Section 83A(5) prescribes a sentence of up to one year or imposition of fine or both for violators of the law.
“The size prescribed by the Election Commission of Pakistan is a bit unrealistic as such small hoardings will not be visible even from a small distance,” a representative of an advertisement agency complained.
At present, on the busy University Road alone at least 50 hoardings have been fixed in violation of the ECC. These billboards have been mostly erected by candidates of the Awami National Party and the Pakistan People’s Party. A few billboards have been installed by candidates of JUI(F) and some independent candidates.
The road is replete with huge and normal size hoardings of two NA-2, Peshawar II, candidates -- Arbab Najeebullah Khan Khalil of the ANP and Arbab Alamgir Khalil of the PPP.
A large number of election hoardings, some of them gigantic, could be witnessed on the busy G. T. Road, Cantonment Area, City Circular Road and other busy areas.
These hoardings are mostly owned by different advertisement agencies which rent them out to clients on different rates, keeping in view the importance of the location.
Under normal circumstances a billboard of the size 60 feet x 20 feet is rented out from Rs50,000 to Rs75,000 per month if the board is fixed on top of a building and the same size board on roadside is rented out at the rate of Rs100,000 to Rs125,000.
“At present a war of billboards is going on between the rich candidates as this is not the job of ordinary candidates,” an advertisement agent said.
It is learnt that some of the candidates have offered more money to advertising companies for replacing the existing hoardings of multinational companies with that of their election banners.
“I was shocked to witness a billboard rented out to me at a prime location displaying the election banner of a candidate,” said a representative of a multinational company.
He said that when he complained to the agency its officials said that they had erroneously displayed the election banner on the hoarding.
Due to advancement of technology and availability of cheap Chinese material in the market it was now much easier to prepare the advertisement banner for a hoarding, said a representative of an advertisement agency.
