The Commission, which oversees all spending by parties during election and referendum campaigns, is concerned that no progress has been made on the subject of political ads despite its often troublesome nature.
Following the controversial 1997 Conservative Party poster campaign which depicted Tony Blair with demon's eyes, the Committee of Advertising Practice decided that political ads were damaging the industry's reputation for effective self-regulation and excluded politicians from its codes.
The decision meant that ads ahead of last year's general election were free from regulation, a situation which the Electoral Commission has now decided is intolerable.
"Political advertising always has the potential for being controversial, so there is a real need to review the case for a code," said the Commission's chairman Sam Younger.
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