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For days the political floats have trundled past on Tonga's potholed roads.
Set up on the backs of trucks, the music blares out and there is much laughter. Those on board dance to the beat and the children start up a chant. It's all great fun. The odd bystander waves which is met with shrieks of delight.
A woman in a stained top stands with a child on her hip and stares. A dog swerves out of the way and down the road an old man leans on his stick looking at the cavalcade of cars draped with names of candidates. His face is expressionless.
"The main problem is that every candidate seems to think they are going to win," says Auckland-based Melino Maka of Tonga's election.
He is one of the most unpopular people on the island having managed the country's first ever independent political poll.
"From 9.30 the calls started ... some angry candidates, some upset people. One man said 'Your survey hurt my feelings, my kava group has told me I'm going to win.'
"I keep saying to them the survey says you need to go and start knocking on doors telling people your policies instead of standing at the side of the road and waving at people, because at the end of the day waving irritates people."
If anything, the reaction to the survey, which ranked the most popular candidates in each constituency, shows a political naivety amongst some.
But who can blame the candidates? This political system is all so new, campaigning has never really been on their radar.
But it doesn't matter. There is an optimism here that's hard to shake. While there's some nervousness, there's a lot of hope that things are going to get better.
After a decade of turmoil and economic hardship the people here deserve a break. They deserve a future of their own making.
It's just rained. I'm standing outside my hotel unit talking on my mobile to my producer, idly poking the edge of a puddle with my feet. She pauses in her conversation about Tonga and then gasps.
"Did you hear that?" she says.
The West Coast miners are dead. Dear God. I don't know them, but like many New Zealanders I feel so rattled by it, my heart clenches for their families. What a terrible grief they have to deal with - our poor boys, it's so incredibly cruel.
It gives me pause to think about how the Tongan people dealt with their own cruel blow last year. When the Princess Ashika sank, the men on the top decks could hear the screams of their women and children trapped below. Seventy-four went down with the unseaworthy ship.
I wonder at the courage of those left behind and their ability to keep going.
The human spirit is an amazing thing.
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