A political party existing only within the City of Wilmington shall be qualified to nominate candidates for the municipal election if it is a bona fide organization of registered voters of the City of Wilmington who:
(1) Elect a city committee and officers of the city committee;
(2) Nominate candidates for the municipal election by a secret ballot of those enrolled for purposes of the municipal election as members of the party taken at a convention or by some other method of polling the party membership;
(3) Not later than August 15 of the year of the municipal election, file with the Department petitions certifying that the party exists and desires to have its candidates placed on the ballot for the forthcoming election. These petitions shall be signed by a number of registered voters of the City of Wilmington not less than 5 percent of the total number of registered voters within the City as of December 31 of the year immediately preceding the municipal election. These petitions shall be prepared between January 1 and August 15 of the year of the election. They shall include the signature, printed name, address at which registered and social security number of each qualified voter signing the petition.
The petition shall also include a sworn statement, signed by the person gathering the signatures and sworn to before a notary public, that such person witnessed the placing of each signature on the petition and, to the best of that person's knowledge or belief, all those who signed the petition were duly registered voters of the City of Wilmington. This statement shall be followed by a warning that any person who knowingly signs a statement which contains falsehoods shall be subject to prosecution for perjury.