Election ads prohibited at polling stations

Advertisements about the presidential elections outside polling stations are not permitted on the day of the elections or the day before, the general elections commissioner warned on Wednesday.

No one can have any posters or form of advertisement that is either directly or indirectly linked to the elections on those two days, and if found guilty, this can have a penalty of up to a year in jail, a €5,000 fine or both.

The commissioner also highlighted candidate representatives are observers and are not allowed to have any contact with the ballots, documents used to count the votes or mobile phones.

He added only the chief staffer at the voting centre is allowed to use a mobile phone, and only for the purposes of liaising with the relevant supervisor for the elections.

Meanwhile, the data protection officer Irini Loizidou-Nicolaidou said she and her colleagues would be visiting election centres to ensure that electoral lists are made available to the party and candidate representatives for the purposes of transparency and control of the electoral process.

Additionally, the electoral rolls shared with parties and candidates are not allowed to include voter ID, date of birth and the full name of the candidate’s father.

Candidate reps are perfectly within their rights to take notes, but they should be destroyed afterwards and not be used for any other purposes other than the intended purpose surrounding the elections, she said.

NIcolaidou also warned that the ID number of voters should not be read aloud as it runs the risk of it being shared with third parties.