57,000 voters registered for election [1]
Tuesday, September 12, 2017 - 22:24. Updated on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 - 09:38.
With just two-months to go before Tongans head to the polls on 16 November, there are now around 57,000 plus voters who have registered, according to a provisional electoral roll published last week.
Supervisor of Elections Pita Vuki said the final electoral roll will be printed on Friday, September 15. This will confirm the number of voters.
"I expect the number of voters to be around that in the provisional roll. But we still have voters coming in this week to register," he said.
The deadline for new voters to register is Thursday, September 14.
Meanwhile, a total of 51,447 voters registered in the General Election 2014.
Pita said since the last election people had continuously registered, especially for the district and town officers election in 2016.
The electoral officers have also been visiting the islands and registering voters. This increase was not spur of the moment. At the same time, more people are turning up to register since the new election was announced, he said.
Voters
The provisional electoral roll published showed 51% women and 49% men.
The largest share of the roll was 70.8% in Tongatapu, 14.8% in Vava'u, 7.6% for Ha'apai, 4.8% in 'Eua and 1.9% for the two Niuas.
Tongans head to the polls, a year early,after King Tupou VI dissolved parliament in August.
The nomination of candidates will be held over two days from September 27-28.