This year's local elections are the first to take place on the day which was legally determined a few years ago: on the third Sunday of November. The deadline for registering candidacies for the 212 mayors and a myriad of council seats expired on Thursday night. Official campaigning starts today, 30 days before the elections, and ends on the 16th of November, when election silence will prevail.

87 candidates, out of whom 11 are women, are contesting for mayoral seats in 11 municipalities. The largest number of mayoral candidates is in Maribor, where as many as 18 candidates want to lead the the city. Murska Sobota has the smallest number, the current mayor will face only one opponent. 10 candidates are running for mayor in the capital. Current mayors will not be standing for re-election in only two municipalities, Kranj and Ptuj.

If all registered candidacies are legitimate, an announcement will be made on the 28th October. The municipal election commission will publicly release the list of confirmed candidacies by the 2nd of November at the latest.

Campaign organisers have had to open up special bank accounts, which must be used to cover all campaigning costs. They are permitted to spend 0.4 euros per eligible voter for the election of local councilors, 0.25 uros per eligible voter for a mayoral election and an additional 0.15 euros for the second round of elections.

Coverage of the election campaign on Radio Television Slovenia starts in one week's time.