Three local parties are among the line-up of 54 groups hoping to take part in the Dutch general election on October 29.

The Frisian National Party (FNP), led by former NSC MP Aant Jelle Soepboer, has registered with the electoral council (Kiesraad), along with OOS Limburg and Lokaal Brabant.

However, the Noord-Brabant party has already said it will not be fielding candidates in the election after members decide at a party congress two weeks ago that they did not have enough time to prepare.

Only parties that can gather 580 signatures from supporters and pay a fee of €11,000 by the deadline in four weeks’ time will be eligible to field candidates.

Chrétien Wetemans of OOS Limburg told NOS that he wanted to put pressure on the government to deal with problems in the province’s infrastructure.

“The province has set money aside to electrify the Maas railway line, when this is actually a job for the national government,” he said. “They also haven’t come up with a compensation plan for damage caused by mining.”

Drop from 2023

The number of applicants is fewer than for the last election in November 2023, when 70 parties registered an interest. Ultimately 26 parties contested the election.

Other parties that will feature on the ballot paper include De Linie, led by former 50Plus leader Gerard van Hooft, Vrede voor Dieren, which broke away from the animal rights party PvdD in protest at its support for arming Ukraine, the Piratenpartij and Wereldpartij Feest van DJ Kaan.

But Jezus Leeft, which took part in two elections and won 5,000 votes in 2021, will not be featuring, preferring to focus on next year’s municipal elections.

Parties now have until September 15 to submit their lists of candidates, after which the electoral council will decide the order in which they appear on the ballot paper. The PVV, which won the largest share of the vote in 2023, will be list number one.