Home > 2.7 Election funding > Referendums in Europe - An Analysis of the Legal Rules in European States
 
 
 
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Paragraph 223
 

Relatively few states regulate the funding of referendum campaigns at local, or even regional, level. Prohibitions on using public funds for campaign purposes are mentioned in the replies from Armenia, Portugal, Russia and Switzerland. In Austria, the moderate use of public funds is accepted, as it is for national referendums; in Malta, public funds can be used for information purposes, but not for campaigning; in Spain, campaign mailings are subject to special, preferential postage rates. In many cases, administrative costs are borne not by the central government, but by the local authority organising the vote, as is the case in Croatia, Poland and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”.