13APR

Candidate database hits 99.97% ahead of vote

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16:52UTC

Democracy Club's candidate database reached near-total coverage three weeks before polling day, completing the data infrastructure for the 7 May elections.

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Key takeaway

Democracy Club completed candidate data for 3,073 of 3,074 areas, locking in the 7 May picture.

Democracy Club entered candidates for 3,073 of 3,074 areas (99.97%), up from 86% on 10 April . The volunteer-driven ingestion closed the remaining 14 percentage points in three days following the completion of English and Welsh Statement of Persons Nominated publication.

The completed database locks in the candidate picture for the 7 May elections. Cross-referencing against Reform UK's spending records and candidate attrition patterns across nations is now viable for the first time. The single missing area is a rounding artefact, not a data gap.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Democracy Club is a small charity that gathers information about election candidates across the UK and makes it available as open data. Before Statements of Persons Nominated (the official lists of candidates) are published by returning officers, the candidate database contains almost nothing. By 13 April 2026, Democracy Club had information on candidates in 3,073 of the 3,074 areas holding elections on 7 May. This near-total coverage matters because it is the primary source for voter information tools: websites and apps that tell you who is standing in your area rely on this database. The jump from 86% on 10 April to 99.97% on 13 April happened as the official candidate nominations were published across England and Wales.

What could happen next?

Opportunity
The completed candidate database enables cross-party analysis of candidate demographics, prior criminal convictions, and affiliation patterns that Reform UK's cold-calling recruitment story makes directly relevant.

Sources:Democracy Club

Mentions:Democracy Club →attrition →Wales →Reform UK →

First Reported In

Update #3 · Both flanks fracture

Democracy Club· 13 Apr 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

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

Democracy Club's 86% coverage on 10 April continued to near-total completion by 13 April, finalising the candidate picture.

Occurred 10 Apr 2026

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This Event

Candidate database hits 99.97% ahead of vote

Complete candidate data across 3,073 of 3,074 areas enables cross-referencing of party slates, spending records and attrition patterns ahead of polling day.

Different Perspectives

Electoral Commission

The Electoral Commission confirmed Christopher Harborne's £9m Q3 2025 donation as the largest from a living individual in UK party finance records, noting compliance with PPERA 2000 permissibility rules; its enforcement function extends to permissibility, not scale. No party has formally challenged the declarations, leaving structural concentration of party finance without a statutory trigger for the current parliament.

Welsh Labour

Welsh Labour enters the Senedd election projected to fall from 29 seats to 12 under a closed-list PR system the party introduced, with First Minister Eluned Morgan polling below the constituency entry threshold. The party faces becoming third-largest in the chamber it redesigned, a devolution-era first.

Scottish National Party

The SNP is projected on 67 Holyrood seats, two above the majority threshold, on the first election under redrawn boundaries; John Swinney has stated a majority constitutes a mandate for a second independence referendum. A confirmed majority would reopen the constitutional question dormant since 2014 with no current Westminster route to a Section 30 order.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

MHCLG reversed the postponement of 30 elections under Divisional Court pressure, committed £63m to affected LGR areas, paid approximately £100,000 in Reform UK's legal costs, and has not published the legal advice justifying either decision. Robert Jenrick's Hansard account that prior advice already judged postponement unlawful has not been addressed or refuted by the department.

HM Government / UK-wide parties

The government frames the Representation of the People Bill as a proportionate foreign-influence response implemented at unusual speed. Reform UK holds its polling position while staying silent on crypto donation quantum. The Liberal Democrats frame the English local elections as a binary contest against Reform.

Scottish parties (SNP, Conservatives, Labour)

The SNP enters the regulated campaign as projected majority government through opposition fragmentation, not a vote surge. The Scottish Conservatives defend a manifesto the IFS dismisses and face zero constituency seats. Labour is the only party projected to retain any constituency presence beyond the SNP.