New Delhi, Jan. 16: The Election Commission has for the first time imposed a total ban on photography or videography by the media inside booths where polling is in progress.

The restrictions on the media will be imposed for the Assembly elections scheduled to begin in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana on February 3 and will be in place for all subsequent polls ? Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Assemblies and legislative councils, as well as those for President and Vice-President.

The order comes in the backdrop of images of politicians casting their ballot on camera or lifting veils of burqa-clad voters to expose bogus electors telecast during the May 2004 Lok Sabha polls. The images, telecast countrywide on news channels, had fuelled controversies.

The Election Commission directive comes close on the heels of a set of suggestions by the Supreme Court to the poll panel, which included installing spy cameras, closed-circuit TV and video recorders inside polling booths and counting centres.

The poll panel has resisted the move to instal cameras in polling booths as it would violate the confidentiality of voting. However, it will discuss the Supreme Court?s suggestions at its meeting tomorrow.

The January 7 ban order to the chief electoral officers of all states is part of a new set of guidelines issued specifically for the media, poll panel officials said, and was given after reviewing facilities provided to the media.

The directive gives presiding officers the right ? if the ban is violated ? to refuse the media entry to the polling booth despite the journalist carrying an authorisation letter.

An Election Commission spokesman said these directives exist and have only been iterated for the polls.

?The ban on videography and photography is to avoid any disturbance and prevent the polling staff from being diverted from their duty. The cameras will be allowed inside the polling centres but not inside the polling booths. Officials get distracted when they see the cameras and tend to neglect their duties though the polling process is still on,? said a poll panel official.

The Election Commission had also received complaints about VIPs casting their ballots in front of cameras and compromising the secrecy of their ballot. Poll panel officials pointed out that the law was being violated and the panel had proposed to declare votes invalid. It dropped the idea after protests from political parties.