Model Code of Conduct

The Model Code of Conduct is the ECI's rulebook of dos and don'ts that political parties, candidates, and the sitting government must follow during an election period.

• One of its most powerful provisions restrains the party in power specifically — it can't announce new government schemes or projects once the Code kicks in, precisely to stop incumbents from using public money to buy votes.
• It also bars giving voters gifts or money in exchange for their vote, and expects all candidates to campaign with restraint so that elections stay peaceful.
• The Code has a curiously informal origin story: it began as a voluntary agreement among parties in Kerala in 1960, decades before the ECI made its enforcement a serious national priority from 1991 onward.
• Because it isn't a law passed by Parliament but a code the ECI enforces through its own authority, its strength has depended heavily on how assertively individual Election Commissioners choose to apply it.