under continuing review. In others, it could be evidence that aspects of the law are outdated and may need reconsideration. The expenditure limits for a campaign provided by UK electoral law have been considered too low by major political parties, especially in elections to fill single casual vacancies in the Parliament. Political parties have therefore become adept in finding ways to spend more on campaigns while technically keeping within the law – for example, instead of the candidate’s campaign buying equipment and declaring the full cost in the return of expenditure required by law, the party buys equipment and rents it to the campaign, and the campaign declares only the much lower cost of the rental. Box 4.2. The regulation of electoral offences • Include them in the penal or criminal code • Include them in the electoral law 107. The bases for codifying electoral offences also vary from country to country. Several focus on the perpetrator of the criminal conduct, such as citizens, election officers, party leaders, and so on. Others focus on the legal interest they are protecting, such as the freedom of the vote or equal conditions for all candidates. The body of law in which an offence is included or the criterion used to regulate it are less important than the existence of a proper legal framework on electoral crimes or offences that helps to ensure that elections are free, fair and genuine. 108. The historical and socio-political context of each country will be influential when defining electoral crimes and offences. A country’s political culture and electoral practices may influence whether conduct is deemed unacceptable because it is at odds with principles such as liberty or equality, and thus should be prohibited, or whether it is considered to be in accordance with such principles and therefore permitted. Such notions may also vary in the same country over time. 109. Thus, for example, in some countries criminal sanctions apply to the conveyance of electors to or from the polling station by candidates or political parties. Such sanctions are found for example in countries that are emerging from a time when there were no truly competitive elections. Under a system where the previous established governing party was well resourced, freedom to transport voters to the polls could be judged to have a detrimental impact on the freedom with which votes are cast, and thus likely to be associated with vote-buying and coercion to affect results. In the United Kingdom, however, the history of transporting voters to the polling stations is different: it was the response of the party whose strength lay more with relatively poorer people to the ability of their richer opponents – at the time the owners of most transport – 44