The 2022 election observation report mentioned significant financial disparities among candidates and parties as one of several causes for an uneven playing field, favouring the incumbents. Gross disparities in campaign financing may raise problems in relation to equality of opportunity. Expenditure limits, when properly applied, are one of the most effective means of ensuring a level playing field. The United Nations Human Rights Committee notes in General Comment No. 25 that “reasonable limitations on campaign expenditure may be justified where this is necessary to ensure that the free choice of voters is not undermined, or the democratic process distorted by the disproportionate expenditure on behalf of any candidate or party’’. In the same perspective, the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters suggests that, in certain cases, there should be limitations on political party spending, especially on advertising. The Venice Commission and ODIHR have also noted in their Joint Guidelines on Political Party Regulation that “[i]t is reasonable for a state to determine the criteria for electoral spending and a maximum spending limit for participants in elections, in order to achieve the legitimate aim of securing equity among candidates and political parties’’, also pointing out that ‘’[t]he legitimate aim of such restrictions must, however, be balanced with the equally legitimate need to protect other rights, such as those of free association and expression. This requires that spending limits be carefully constructed so that they are not overly burdensome".