Conditions for conduct of Pre-election Campaign via Periodicals on a Free Basis.
83.1. In order to conduct unpaid pre-election campaign, candidates for Presidential elections, political parties, blocks of political parties with registered candidates in more than 60 single mandate election constituencies or in more than a half of all municipalities, and the campaign groups on referendum which have 40,000 or more members shall be entitled to relevant space for free advertising in periodicals mentioned in Article 77.2. of this Code, issued at least once a week.
83.2 In order to conduct unpaid pre-election campaign, candidates registered for single-mandate constituencies and the campaign groups on referendum, which have 20,000 or more members, as well as political parties, blocks of political parties which candidates have been registered in more than 1/3 of all municipalities shall be entitled to relevant space for free advertising in periodicals mentioned in Article 77.3. of this Code, issued at least once a week.
83.3. In order to conduct unpaid pre-election campaign, candidates for municipal elections and the campaign groups on referendum, which have 2,000 or more members shall be entitled to relevant space for free advertising in periodicals mentioned in Article 77.4. of this Code, issued at least once a week.
83.4. Based on applications submitted by the referendum campaign groups of candidates, political parties, blocks of political parties registered after commencement of the date set forth in Article 75 of this Code, a lottery for use of free advertisement pages shall be held among them within one week in the order determined by the Central Election Commission.
83.5. Editorial offices of the periodicals indicated in Article 77.1. of this Code shall allocate special pages in their periodicals for free publications.
83.6. Total weekly volume of free space allocated by editorial offices of each periodical indicated in Article 77.1. of this Code to the registered candidates, political parties, blocks of political parties and referendum campaign groups shall constitute at least 10% of the general volume of space for the period provided for in Article 75 of this Code. The editorial office of the publication shall announce the general volume of space provided on free basis for pre-referendum campaign purposes publication, within at least 50 days after publication of decision on identification of the Election Day. Periodicals shall allocate equal space/volume for registered candidates, political parties, blocks of political parties and campaign groups on referendum.
83.7. Allocation of the general free space/volume in the periodicals indicated in Articles 77.2. and 77.3. shall be determined through dividing this general volume correspondingly by the total number of registered candidates, political parties, blocks of political parties and referendum campaign groups which are entitled to free publication of pre-election materials in those periodicals.
Dates for free publication of pre-election campaign materials of registered candidates, political parties, blocks of political parties and campaign groups on referendum shall be identified by a draw, in the presence of the interested parties. The draw shall be conducted on the date when the period set forth in Article 75 of this Code commences. Members of the relevant election commission, as well as persons mentioned in Articles 40.2 and 40.4 of this Code, can participate in the draw process. Results of the draw shall be officialized by a protocol.
The expenses spent by periodicals for allocation of free space in the periodicals for registered candidates, political parties, blocks of political parties and referendum campaign groups shall be reimbursed to the periodicals from the state budget.
