Despite the need to regulate the use of administrative resources during electoral processes, in many countries, domestic electoral laws do not provide rules and/or sanctions. As a result, the principle of balance of powers can be threatened by a misuse of administrative resources due, inter alia, to unbalanced electoral processes in favour of incumbents. Moreover, general pieces of legislation, such as laws against corruption, on conflict of interest or on public service may be too general to effectively respond to the need for tackling specific situations of misuse of such resources. Where there is no legislation on the issue, public authorities should act based on ethical principles, guaranteeing conditions of equality for all political competitors. The respect of a balanced electoral process and consequently of basic requirements of a democratic constitutional state implies an obligation for the State to protect such principles, notably for new political parties and candidates, especially those without representation in parliament and/or local self-government bodies and particularly during electoral processes, where the environment is the most competitive and too often the most unbalanced. In this sense, electoral legislation should be developed to provide efficient and sufficient means for tackling the misuse of administrative resources, which must be applied ethically by public servants, following the principle of neutrality in exercising their functions, with a clear, understandable and predictable system of appropriate sanctions.