It is useful to distinguish three kinds of regulations:
- those which provide a free or subsidized benefit in kind for candidates or political parties
- those which control or ban advertising activities
- definitions of the campaign period to which the rules apply
Publicly Subsidized Campaign Advertising
The most common and, probably, the most important form of publicly subsidized advertising is the free broadcasting time made available in many countries to political parties. This is discussed separately in two special entries, Public Broadcasting Allocations and Formulas for Allocating Time.
Some countries provide facilities for free or subsidized postal facilities or for subsidized printing of campaign materials. For example:
- Belgium: special postage rates for campaign material marked with the words document lectoral
- France: [I]ndirect public funding includes subsidies for ... the cost of publishing, printing, mailing and posting campaign materials.
- Great Britain: each parliamentary candidate is entitled to send free of any postal charge to each elector one postal communication weighing not more than two ounces and containing matter related to the election
- Japan: each candidate for membership in the lower house (single-member districts) is allowed to mail up to 35,000 postcards free of charge. For the election of members of the upper house (local districts only), this number may be increased, depending on the size of the electoral district. Also, within certain limits, the making of handbills and posters is allowed and the candidate will be reimbursed for the cost.
- Luxembourg: free postal services are provided for each candidate
- Mexico: there is a sales tax exemption on the printed and audio-visual materials sold by the political parties. Mailing and posting and telegraphic communications are exempted from taxes.
- Spain: there is a reduced fee for public postal services during the campaign
- Taiwan: the Central Election Commission compiles an election gazette to be distributed to each household and publicly posted. The views, photograph, and personal details of each candidate are included.
In Japan, the government pays for newspaper advertisements for candidates. Each candidate for election to the lower house (single-member districts) and the upper house (local districts) is entitled to five free advertisements in any newspaper of their choosing during the campaign period.70
Free poster sites are occasionally provided. This happens in Germany, where municipalities make billboards available. In Spain, municipalities have to reserve some free space in public places for political propaganda. In the Czech Republic, a city authority may make space available for political posters. The space must be divided equally been the parties participating in the elections. (pp. 59, 76, 177) Free poster space is also provided by municipal councils in Belgium.71
Regulations and Restrictions
First, crucial rules concern paid political advertising on television and radio, as well as regulations about the coverage of the election on news programmes. These are discussed in special files, see Public Broadcasting Allocations and Formulas for Allocating Time.
Second, regulations regarding the display of posters on commercial billboards. In Britain, this has now become the most costly item of spending by the national headquarters of the Conservative and Labour Party organizations before and during general election campaigns. As described above, there are a few countries, like Germany, Spain, and the Czech Republic where parties may be given free use of billboard sites. Such rules are sometimes accompanied by a ban on the purchase of commercial hoardings by the party organizations. For instance, this is the case in Spain and the Czech Republic.
Third, there may be a restriction on paid press advertisements during an election by candidates or parties. This is the case in Japan. In Italy there is a central authority vested by law, the Garante per l'editoria e la radiodiffusione, which is responsible for guaranteeing equal access to press advertising for all candidates, their groupings, and political parties in the thirty days preceding an election. Other political advertising in the newspapers and periodicals is forbidden.
As new communication technologies develop, including faxes, telephone banks, electronic mail, cable television, and so forth, new problems of regulation will undoubtedly arise.
Different Definitions of the 'Campaign' Period
The underlying problems of distinguishing between routine and election activities and expenditures have already been discussed, see Election Campaigns. It will be useful, however, to list some of the definitions used in different countries. In Australia, the 'election' period lasts from the time the election writ is issued to the time until the close of polling. In Canada, too, the start of the official campaign period is the same.
In Britain, the campaign starts, for the purposes of spending limits incurred by parliamentary candidates, at whatever time they start campaigning. For this reason, a would-be candidate will normally arrange to postpone his nomination until the Prime Minister announces the election date. It is from the time that he has been formally nominated (usually by his local party organization) that the expense clock starts to run. Before nomination, candidates can in practice start to 'nurse' the constituency, provided that they are careful to refer to themselves as 'prospective parliamentary candidates' but never as the 'parliamentary candidates'.
The length of the formal campaign period in Japan is only twelve days for the Lower House (seventeen days for the Upper House) and in Taiwan as little as ten days. In Turkey, regulations relating to the fair use of news broadcasts starts fifteen days before the poll, and free party political broadcasts are squeezed into the final seven days before voting day.
Draft Only
