OSLO — The protocol for nominating and choosing recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize is one of the world’s most scrutinized and secretive. 
 
 A total of 329 candidates — 217 individuals and 112 organizations — are being considered for this year’s prize, which will be announced in October. The identities of the candidates are kept secret, and indeed, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prizes, is forbidden from divulging any information about its deliberations for 50 years, and even then, only for scholarship purposes and at its discretion. 
 
 But a wrinkle in this time-honored process — the peace prize was first awarded in 1901 — emerged on Tuesday, when the committee announced that it had uncovered what appeared to be a forged nomination of President Trump for the prize. The matter has been referred to the Oslo police for investigation. 
 
 Moreover, the forgery appears to have occurred twice: Olav Njolstad, the secretary of the five-member committee, said it appeared that a forged nomination of Mr. Trump for the prize was also submitted last year — and was also referred to the police. (The earlier forgery was not disclosed to the public at the time.) ||||| Image copyright EPA Image caption Mr Trump was reportedly nominated for his "ideology of peace by force" by an anonymous American 
 
 A nomination made for US President Donald Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize was potentially fraudulent, according to the awarding committee. 
 
 The Norwegian committee has filed a report with police over its concerns. 
 
 Mr Trump was reportedly nominated for his "ideology of peace by force" by an anonymous American. 
 
 The director of the Nobel Institute said there were concerns that Mr Trump's nomination may have been falsified. 
 
 "I can say that we have good reason to believe that [the nomination of Mr Trump] is a fake," Nobel Institute Director Olav Njølstad told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. 
 
 "The same 'fake' nomination probably took place last year too," Mr Njølstad said. 
 
 Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize must be submitted by 31 January each year; the winner will be announced in early October. 
 
 The process for nominating candidates is highly restricted. 
 
 Those who are entitled to propose candidates for the prize include members of parliament and government, former laureates and some university professors. 
 
 In 2009, only a year into his term of office, US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples". 
 
 In 2012, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union for transforming Europe "from a continent of war to a continent of peace". 
 
 The 2017 edition of the prize was won by the anti-nuclear weapons group International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. ||||| The Norwegian Nobel Committee never divulges the identities of people and organizations being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize, at least if the nominations are legitimate. But this week, the committee disclosed that somebody had fraudulently nominated President Trump for the prize, this year and last. "We verify all nominations, at least the ones with a shadow of doubt," Olav Njolstad, the secretary of the five-member Nobel committee, told The New York Times on Wednesday. 
 
 Not just anyone can nominate a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize — you have to be a head of state, past recipient, lawmaker, Cabinet member, or certain university professor or official, to name some examples. Last year's Trump nomination letter was subjected to a lengthy forensic examination, and Njolstad told the Times it's fair to assume that the forged nominations were purported to have been from a nominator who said, when contacted, that they were not legitimate. Oslo police Inspector Rune Skjold said his economic crimes unit had been in touch with the FBI, suggesting that the forger is in the U.S., and police believe the same person is responsible for both forged nominations. Peter Weber
– President Trump is (or was) apparently up for the Nobel Peace Prize that will be announced this fall, a surprise revelation since who's in the running is usually kept under wraps by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. But the New York Times explains Trump's candidacy was divulged because of something fishy going on with his nomination, a matter that Oslo police are looking into. It seems the person who allegedly nominated the president, when contacted, said the nomination wasn't authentic—and the forgery happened last year as well; police say the same person is behind both false nominations. The fraud regarding 2017's nomination, which was put through the same comprehensive forensic scrutiny that this year's will undergo, wasn't reported to the public until now. Trump was said to have been nominated for his "ideology of peace by force," per the BBC. The Week explains that nominations can come only from certain parties, including a head of state, someone who's already won a Nobel, or a qualified lawmaker or university professor, among others. It's reported there are 329 nominations for this year's prize: 217 individuals and 112 groups. "We receive many invalid nominations each year in the sense that they don't meet the deadline or the nominator is not in fact qualified to nominate," Olav Njolstad, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, says, per the Washington Post. "But to my knowledge this is the first example of a forged nomination where someone has stolen the identity of another person." The chief of the Oslo police's economic crimes division says that although they haven't yet been able to confirm where the forger is located, the FBI is assisting his team in investigating.