Political campaigning should be transparent. You should know where information is coming from so you can make an informed decision about who to vote for.
The money spent on election campaigns is regulated by the Electoral Commission. This makes sure that all spending is fair and open.
There are limits on how much political parties, candidates and campaigners are allowed to spend during campaigns. If they break these rules, they may have to pay fines.
Following an election, you can go online and see how much money political parties and candidates spent on campaigning. You can see where parties’ larger donations of money came from. This also applies to campaign groups who may not be linked to a political party.
Printed campaign adverts, like a leaflet or in a newspaper, must show who paid for them on the advert. This is the law.
Social media companies have their own rules to encourage transparency. For example, when you see political adverts on Facebook, they will usually say who paid for it.
There are other rules about what is and isn’t allowed in campaigning. These are shared with political parties and campaign groups so they can keep within the rules. For example, a candidate can’t try to get you to vote for them by promising to buy a chocolate bar for everyone in your town if they win, and candidates can’t tell lies about another candidate's character or behaviour.
Campaigning can’t take place in some places, such as inside polling stations on polling day.
You might notice that the news on the TV and radio stops reporting about campaigning on polling day. This is because if it’s reported that a party or candidate is in the lead halfway through the day, voters who haven’t voted yet might be put off from voting at all. This would damage the whole process.