Lead candidate

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In politics, a lead candidate (German: Spitzenkandidat; Dutch: lijsttrekker, lit. 'list puller') is the candidate placed first on a party list. In parliamentary systems, it is often the party's nominee for the position of head of government,^[1] and the party chair or party leader.^[2]

In the Netherlands, which uses a system of open-list proportional representation, the lead candidates in elections for the House of Representatives are almost always the parties' political leaders. When elected, the lead candidate usually becomes the party's parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives. When a coalition is formed, the lead candidates of the governing parties may be offered senior positions in the Cabinet, requiring them to vacate their seats in parliament. Traditionally, the lead candidate of the largest party in the governing coalition becomes Prime Minister.^[3][4] However, following the 2023 Dutch general election, PVV leader Geert Wilders was not Prime Minister despite being the lead candidate of the largest party in the Schoof cabinet.^[5]

The term is also used in provincial, municipal, water board and island council elections, as well as in elections to the European Parliament and the Senate. In these elections, the lead candidates of national parties tend to be different from the party leaders. They are also not the parties' nominees for the positions of King's commissioner, mayor, dike-reeve or lieutenant governor.

In Belgium, elections to the Chamber of Representatives only feature provincial electoral lists since the 2012–2014 state reform. As a consequence, there are usually six lead candidates per party. In general, one of them is the party leader. Prior to the state reform, some of the party leaders ran as lijsttrekker on the Senate list.

• Lijstduwer – the last candidate on the electoral list