Polling started slowly in Nuku'alofa in today's By Election to elect two new People's Representatives to the Tongan Parliament - one from Tongatapu and the other from the two Niuas .

Heavy rainful this morning kept voters away from the two main polling stations of Pangai Lahi and Pangai Si'’i. But by 2 pm when the rain stopped, and the sun came out, voters started to turn up slowly, individually or in small groups, before polling stations closed at 4 pm.

The Supervisor of the Election, Pita Vuki, said that generally today's By Election attracted a low turn out of voters. He thought that people may have lost the excitement of coming to vote because they had already done so in the March General Election.

The results from 50 polling stations for Tongatapu and five polling stations for the two Niuas will be counted this evening and were expected to be announced before midnight.