The nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is facing what one of its own MPs called “disaster” in regional elections later this year — because of an error in filing paperwork.

After a string of disappointing results, the AfD was looking to bounce back in regional elections in its heartland of Saxony in September.

The party is currently in joint first place in opinion polls in the former east German state, and is projected to win as many as 30 seats in the regional parliament.

But the AfD won’t be able to claim that many seats, after a the party messed up the nominations for its candidates.

Under Germany’s proportional representation system, each party must submit a list of candidates who will be allotted seats according to the party’s share of the vote.

German election laws specify that all candidates must be chosen at a single party conference, but for some reason the AfD chose to draw up two lists for Saxony at separate events.

Electoral authorities have ruled that they can only accept the first list, which only contains 18 candidates — meaning any other seats the party wins will be divided among its rivals.