Political party and candidate campaign codes of conduct may be included in the legal framework or be an EMB-brokered voluntary arrangement between parties. These codes are more effective if they have voluntary agreement from parties, but benefit from the EMB or election dispute resolution bodies being legally empowered to impose sanctions for breaches.

Several EMBs have a mandate in the electoral legal framework to regulate political parties’ campaign methods and conduct in general. Other EMBs have a role in regulating media allocations for party campaigns, or regulate the allocation of public media air time to parties and candidates. In Canada, the EMB appoints a broadcasting arbitrator to allocate paid and free time to registered political parties on the electronic broadcasting networks.

Elements of election campaigns that are not directly related to political party activities are also under the jurisdiction of some EMBs. For example, electoral law in countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Russia regulates the publication of political opinion polling. Jurisdiction over this and other issues relevant to the media’s treatment of election ’news’ is more commonly left either to self-regulation or to a media council.