The final list of approved candidates who will contest next month’s General Election will be announced by the Fijian Elections Office tonight.

Elections Supervisor Mohammed Saneem says they have received a total of 243 candidate nominations as of mid-day.

Of this, 172 have been approved as of yesterday while six who were disqualified have been replaced.

“We received 31 nominations from Unity Fiji, you would have noted that Unity Fiji had walked in and walked out because they were short of $500 and they went back to get it and you also noticed that Hope filed 28 nominations with us today. They were here at 12pm and as such they were entitled to file their nominations. We will be processing these nominations today and I hope to have a media conference tonight to announce the list of approved candidates. Then when the withdrawal period commences and tomorrow is the day for nominations to be objected to and appealed against for those that are rejected today.”

Following the close of nominations, the FijiFirst, SODELPA and NFP will each have 51 candidates contesting the election, 31 from Unity Fiji, 28 from Hope while FLP will contest with 25 candidates.

Saneem has also confirmed there will be no Independent candidates this year.