The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Monday that there are 329 candidates that were nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize by the February 1 deadline. These include 234 individuals and 95 organisations. The Oslo-based organization said that it was the third highest number of candidates ever, adding the current record of 376 candidates was reached in 2016.
The nominees aren't announced by the very secretive board in Oslo, but those doing the nominating may choose to make it public, raising publicity both for the nominee and the proposer.
Earlier reports had said that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and former White House advisor Jared Kushner, who brokered the Arab-Israel Abraham Accords, were among the nominees.
A vast group of people — heads of state or politicians serving at a national level, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, past Nobel Prize recipients and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee — can submit a nomination for the prize.