Another set of mechanisms flows from statutory or constitutional provisions designed to limit or prevent parties from either registering, nominating candidates for office, or otherwise gaining official ballot access, as well as to unequally restrict access to campaign funds and media airtime. As in the previous section, here, too, the logic is straightforward. On the one hand, “minor parties seeking to break into office [] are generally expected to perform well in political systems which facilitate more egalitarian conditions of party competition, for example where all parties are equally entitled to ballot access, free campaign media, direct public funds, and indirect state subsidies.”6 On the other hand, ”minor parties face a harsher environment where such public resources are allocated in a ‘cartel’ arrangement biased toward established parties already in the legislature, thereby protecting incumbent politicians… Minor challengers face even more serious limitations in regimes holding manipulated elections, where the rules for the allocation of public resources, such as media airtime, are grossly biased toward the ruling party.”