Denmark’s two most recently established political parties – Nationalpartiet (the National Party) and Alternativet (the Alternative) – have expressed frustration to DR Nyheder concerning the bureaucracy involved in getting registered for the next parliamentary elections.
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In order to be eligible to receive votes, new political parties need to obtain 20,260 signatures from citizens stating their support.
And both parties are complaining that it can take local councils over two months to approve these declarations.
Extremely frustrating
Kashif Ahmad, the chairman of Nationalpartiet, told DR that he is contacted on a daily basis by people saying that they are experiencing obstacles trying to give the party their support.
“We have experienced many types of problem,” he said.
“Many councils don’t know what they need to do with voter declarations, and several councils say that they don’t have the manpower to deal with the declarations. Where do we stand then with our democratic rights?”
Uffe Elbæk, the founder of Alternativet and a previous culture minister, voiced similar concerns.
”People are telling us that it takes an unbelievably long time before they get an answer, and some don’t get an answer at all,” he told DR.
“It is extremely frustrating for us.”
