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REGISTRATION of candidates for the 2010 Tonga General Election will be held for two days in October on a day to be announced soon, said the Election Supervisor Pita Vuki on September 2.

But candidates for the 17 People's Representative seats in the new Tonga Legislative Assembly will have to meet certain requirements.

He said that for a candidate to be eligible to run for election in November, they must pay a $400 pa'anga registration fee to be accompanied with 50 signatures of registered voters from the constituency that he or she is running for. Candidates are also required to run in the constituency they registered in, and to provide documents from the Supreme Court and Magistrate's Court to confirm that they have no criminal record.

Tongan candidates from abroad must have been resident in Tonga for at least three months to be eligible to run, he said.

Meanwhile, a number of candidates have publicly announced their candidacies and have started their public campaigns on air and in newspapers.

Pita said that candidates were free to run their campaigns now but the official registration of their names to run in the election would not be until October.

There are 17 new constituencies in the coming election, 10 for Tongatapu, 2 for Ha'apai, 3 for Vava'u, 1 for 'Eua, and 1 Niuas. Copyright © www.matangitonga.to [2]