Ad agencies not restricted to offer billboards to electoral competitors

The advertising agencies will be able to decide how much advertising area they can offer to the competitors registered in the electoral race for the parliamentary elections of April 5. But they must offer advertising space in equitable conditions to each competitor. These and other provisions are included in a regulation endorsed on Tuesday, February 10, by the Central Election Commission (CEC). The final variant of the document was endorsed with 8 votes of those 9 CEC members, Info-Prim Neo reports. The initial variant of the regulation provided for instituting a limit of 50% of the advertising space that an advertising agency can use in the electoral campaign. CEC secretary Iurie Ciocan said that the limit was coordinated with the advertising agencies, as the experience of other companies proved that some candidates have engrossed the available advertising space, renting it much earlier than the start of the campaign. In response, more CEC members said that instituting this limit would be interfering into the agencies' work. Finally the limit has been ousted of the text of the regulation. Each competitor must be given at least 10% of the total space offered by the agencies for electoral advertising. The CEC has also established that the price for placing electoral advertising cannot outrun the price of commercial advertising. The regulation also provides that the local public administrations, 3 days after registering the electoral competitors, must establish the places for electoral out-door ads. The space will be equally divided for all candidates. Each competitor will receive at least 1 square meter. The electoral advertising in public transport, on monuments, buildings, as well as on historic realty is banned. The electoral campaign has officially started for nine political parties that were registered by the CEC on Tuesday, February 10. The tenth party which sent in its papers on Monday, February 9, is waiting to be registered in at most 7 days from the date of presenting the papers to the CEC. Other parties can start the campaign only after lodging the documents with CEC and being registered as electoral competitors. This can be made till March 5, inclusively.