32 parties have submitted their candidate lists for the parliamentary elections next month
32 political parties officially submitted their candidate lists for the upcoming parliamentary elections in October, according to the election council. However, deficiencies were found in half of these lists, totaling 16 lists. These deficiencies can still be corrected in the next two days before the council issues its final ruling on Friday at 5 PM. Only then will the qualified parties for the October 29 elections be confirmed.
The submission of candidate lists is subject to strict procedures, where signatures from all candidates are required, and any missing or incorrect signature is considered a deficiency. By Friday, the election board will verify the validity of all lists and assign a number to each party on the ballot paper, following a public session of the council.
The council also verifies that each party pays the mandatory security amount of €11,250, and for new or small parties, it ensures that at least 30 support statements are submitted in each electoral district. Large parties that already have seats in the Tweede Kamer, the Dutch House of Representatives, are exempt from this requirement.
Several well-known parties have submitted their lists, including VVD, GroenLinks/PvdA, PVV, CDA, D66, BBB, ChristenUnie, NSC, Partij voor de Dieren, SP, and Volt. Alongside them, smaller and less well-known parties such as Vrede voor Dieren, De Linie, NL PLAN, ORDA, FNP, Vrij Verbond, and Partij voor de rechtsstaat have also entered the competition.
In the previous elections in 2023, 29 parties submitted their lists, of which 26 parties participated with a total of 1,126 candidates. The record for the highest number of participating parties was in 2021, when 37 parties submitted their lists, which is the largest number in the history of the Dutch parliamentary elections.