A total of 60 spots are to be filled across the four constituencies. Central candidate lists have to be filed with the Luxembourg City district court, northern ones with the Diekirch district court, southern ones with the peace court in Esch-sur-Alzette, and eastern ones at a place in Grevenmacher, to be determined by the president of the Luxembourg City district court.
At the time of filing, the lists need to have 100 signatures by regional voters, three signatures by a regional municipal councillors, or one by a regional MP. Which political party the MP belongs to is irrelevant here; so, you could also sign for the list of your own party.
In other words, parties with representatives from all four districts in parliament have an advantage over others. Smaller parties or political movements therefore might have a harder time collecting the 100 signatures per district.
However, it is made slightly easier through the fact that the 100 signatories could also include their own candidates - provided that the candidates are also registered in the district.
How exactly the process is examined depends on the respective court. In Diekirch, for example, it is said to have been stricter this year. The general gist is nonetheless as follows:
Article 135 of the electoral law stipulates that the surname, first name(s), occupation and place of residence of all candidates must be indicated separately on the list. If a candidate’s eligibility is in doubt, the president of the district’s main electoral office can mandate a double-verification by the emergency court.
Candidates, in turn, agree to contest in the district by signing a declaration. This comes as a result of an awkward situation in the 2018 elections, where several people on the ‘Demokratie’ candidate lists did not even want to run for elections in the first place. Nothing has been heard of the movement since.
