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Democracy Club has 2.6% of candidate data 30 days out

1 min read

18:20UTC

As of 7 April 2026, Democracy Club had ingested Statement of Persons Nominated data from 81 of 3,074 areas (2.6 per cent), all of them Scottish, leaving no independent candidate count for England, Wales or the mayoralties.

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Key takeaway

Democracy Club has processed 2.6 per cent of candidate data with 30 days to go, leaving no verified national total.

Democracy Club, the volunteer-run open data project that provides the UK's only independent aggregate candidate database, had ingested Statement of Persons Nominated (SoPN) data from 81 of 3,074 areas as of 7 April 2026. That is 2.6 per cent of the total, and all 81 are in Scotland. English local authorities, Welsh Senedd constituencies and the six London mayoral contests show zero areas ingested.

SoPN is the legal notice every returning officer publishes after nominations close, listing the candidates standing in each ward, constituency or mayoralty. Democracy Club's volunteers manually enter each notice, area by area. With nominations closing on 9 April for most English councils, the volunteer workforce has a matter of days to move from 81 areas to something approximating the full 3,074 before polling day.

The consequence for pre-election reporting is that no independent, aggregated candidate count exists for the 2026 elections. Any national figure quoted in coverage between now and 7 May is either party self-declared or extrapolated from historical baselines. The gap matters because the Electoral Commission does not publish a central candidate database either; Democracy Club's ingest is the de facto source of truth for researchers, journalists and electoral integrity monitors in the UK. The 5,013-seat English total the database anchors cannot be independently verified against candidate counts until the ingest catches up. A 2.6 per cent baseline at T-30 is not a recoverable position without volunteer surge.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Before people can vote, every area publishes an official legal document called a Statement of Persons Nominated (SoPN), which lists every candidate standing. There is no central government database of all these documents. A charity called Democracy Club manually collects and digitises them, area by area. As of 7 April 2026, Democracy Club had processed documents from 81 of 3,074 areas — that is 2.6 per cent, and all from Scotland. England, Wales and the London mayoralties: zero. The result is that no-one currently knows how many candidates are standing in the 2026 elections. Any number quoted by newspapers or broadcasters is coming from the parties themselves or from estimates. Nominations close 9 April, leaving a handful of days for volunteers to process thousands of documents before polling day.

What could happen next?

Risk
Without an independent candidate database, journalists and researchers cannot verify whether any party's claimed candidate numbers are accurate in the 30 days before polling.
Meaning
The UK's reliance on a volunteer charity for electoral transparency data — with no statutory alternative — represents a structural accountability gap in the electoral information infrastructure.

Sources:Democracy Club

Mentions:Democracy Club →PA Elections →Institute for Government →Wales →Senedd →Statement of Persons Nominated (SoPN) →Electoral Commission →

First Reported In

Update #1 · Wales rewrites parliament no voter has used

Democracy Club· 7 Apr 2026

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Causes and effects

This Event

Democracy Club has 2.6% of candidate data 30 days out

No verified national candidate total exists for the 2026 elections, and all pre-election coverage quoting figures is using party self-declared numbers.

Led to

Candidate Database Jumps From 2.6% to 86% in Three Days

Occurred 10 Apr 2026

Read story →

Different Perspectives

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Conservative Party (frontbench peers and Kemi Badenoch)

Conservative frontbench peers argued against retrospective rules at the Lords Second Reading on 14 September, a position that protects gifts made before any cap. Kemi Badenoch rejected Burnham's electoral reform commission on 2 October, accusing him of using it to entrench the left.

Reform UK

Reform denied wrongdoing after the Channel 4 News programme, called the sting a hoax by climate activists and said it would cooperate with the Metropolitan Police. In the same month it announced £36m gifts from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.

Steff Aquarone / Liberal Democrats (North Norfolk)

Aquarone told Rayner in the Commons on 7 September that North Norfolk District Council had spent money preparing for a reorganisation the Government has now withdrawn. He puts the cost of the cancelled merger on districts in the four areas.