Article 137 of the LEMP provides that the national minority list status shall be recognised by the REC if the main goal of its submission is to represent the interests of the national minority, as well as to protect and enhance the rights of national minority members, in compliance with the international legal standards; the submitter “may only be a political party of a national minority or a coalition composed exclusively of political parties of national minorities”. The REC has a broad discretionary power to decide whether these conditions have been fulfilled. To this end, “[t]he REC may seek the opinion of the competent national minority council on whether a certain electoral list may hold the status of a national minority electoral list”. It is understood that if the list has been submitted by a political party representing a national minority, it will represent that minority. Article 138 of the LEMP provides that the REC can deny national minority status to a submitted list “if the list leader or MP candidate on that electoral list is a person who is generally known to be a member of another political party which is not a national minority political party or if other circumstances are established which undoubtedly indicate the intention to circumvent the law”.