Papua New Guinea's Electoral Commissioner says the number of candidates contesting next month's election is smaller than the figure of 4,000 figure reported in the local media.
The election process has formally begun after the Governor-General on Friday signed writs for the 111 seats, made up of 89 open electorates and 22 provincial seats including the two newly-created provinces, Hela and Jiwaka.
The Commissioner, Andrew Trawen, says his staff are finalising the roll as the remaining field data comes back from electorates.
He says ballot papers are also being finalised as the deadline for nominations approaches.
"The figure that I have is about 2,900 people who have registered so we're looking at less than 4,000 to register before the close of nominations next week. The figure that was given by the media is 4,000. I don't know where they got those figures but our figures are much less than that."
Andrew Trawen
