In the Republic of Gaza, there is no limits on forming political parties, and because of this, a various amount of political parties exist in the country. Political parties cannot be banned by the government on the basis of freedom of assembly and speech. There are two types of political parties in the country; seated political parties, which hold seats on the National Assembly, and unseated political parties, which do not hold seats on the National Assembly. As of early 2015 there were eleven government-recognised political parties, five of which were seated.