What is Democracy Club and what does it do?: A UK volunteer-run open-data NGO that aggregates candidate data from returning officers to build the country's only independent candidate database.
Where can I find a list of UK election candidates for 2026?: Democracy Club's candidates.democracyclub.org.uk is the main public aggregator. By 10 April 2026, coverage reached 86% of areas after nominations closed on 9-10 April.
How complete is the Democracy Club candidate database for May 2026?: By 10 April 2026, Democracy Club covered 86% of areas (2,636 of 3,074), up from just 2.6% at T-30. Scotland is at 100%. North East England lags at 39% entered.

Background

Democracy Club is a UK open-data NGO, run primarily by volunteers, that builds the country's only independent aggregate candidate database for UK elections. It ingests Statements of Persons Nominated (SoPNs) from returning officers after nominations close, codes the data into machine-readable form, and publishes it at candidates.democracyclub.org.uk alongside APIs used by journalists, academics, and civic-tech projects.

At T-30 on 7 April 2026, Democracy Club's candidate database had processed only 81 of 3,074 SoPN areas (2.6 per cent), all Scottish — with English local, Welsh Senedd, and mayoral areas at zero, because nominations in those jurisdictions did not close until 9-10 April. By 10 April, the database had jumped to 86 per cent coverage (2,636 of 3,074 areas), driven by English and Welsh SoPN publications on 9-10 April; Scotland reached 100 per cent. Data had been entered for 2,068 areas and double-checked for 1,457 areas, with North East England lagging at 39 per cent entered. Democracy Club also publishes current Senedd composition data.

For readers tracking any of the 7 May contests, the resolution of Democracy Club's data gap in three days means verified cross-party candidate counts are now available for the first time in the 2026 cycle. The North East England lag is the remaining data gap worth monitoring for anyone tracking Reform UK's paper-candidate strategy in council elections.

How the World Sees Them

Democracy Club

Ingestion is volunteer-driven and sequential: returning officers publish SoPNs after nominations close, Democracy Club codes them into the database.

UK political journalism

Democracy Club's database is the default source for candidate counts; its T-30 coverage gap means 2026 pre-election candidate claims will rely on party self-reporting.