Several residents of Belval whose names appear on the official candidate list of the Demokratie party in the southern election district say they were unaware of what they were signing when volunteers from the party conducted door-to-door canvassing in the town.

Speaking to RTL, some of the involuntary candidates reveal they did sign a paper brandished by the party volunteers but did not read what they were signing. “There was a peg holding down the top of the paper, so even with the best intention nobody could have seen that it had anything to do with an election,” said Lydia Beffort, who is now officially a candidate in the election on 14 October. Another unwilling candidate, Sonja Bettendorf, explained that the Demokratie volunteers had merely asked if she would be interested in receiving more information from the party about issues such as refugees.

Demokratie president Sonja Holper has claimed that she did not know precisely who had been contacted by the “numerous” volunteers the party had engaged. Holper said on Tuesday that she would withdraw the candidate lists in the south and centre constituencies. But the respective election offices have said that candidate lists have already gone to print and, in any case, cannot legally be changed after the cut-off date of 16 August. RTL says that at least 10 of the party’s 23 candidates in the centre did not want to stand for election or were not even aware that they would be on the list.