When the Scotsman decided to write an article on election law – more specifically, the definitions and the constraints on what a political party and each candidate may do as set out in two much-amended pieces of legislation, the Representation of the Peoples Act 1983 and the Political Parties and Elections Act 2000 – they knew who to ask: LDV’s Co-Editor Mark Pack, the inspiration for LDV’s sister site the Election Law Channel. Here’s an excerpt, focusing on spending limits:
Mark Pack of Mandate Communications, and formerly of the Liberal Democrats, says the major difference is that TV advertising is still barred in the UK. Party Political Broadcasts are controlled and represent a small part of party election spending.
“In reality the upper spending limit is not necessarily achieved by the main parties,” he says. “What they do, however, is to use the pooled allowance to focus on the constituencies they have identified as their key targets either for gains or those they need to protect. There can be a succession of mailings in those constituencies that the parties believe will help their local candidate but as long as they feature the national leader and all his works it is allowable against the national spending accounts and not the local candidate.”
You can read the article in full here.
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