Fewer candidates are lining up to contest the Papua New Guinea elections than in past polls.

The country's three weeks of voting get underway on July 2.

In preliminary figures released by the Electoral Commission when nominations closed last night 2,351 candidates had registered, compared with 3,332 in 2017.

The Electoral Commissioner, Simon Sinai, was surprised at the numbers, saying the Commission had been anticipating more than 4,000 to stand.

There are 86 women candidates compared with 167 in the last poll.

No women candidates were successful in 2017 but campaigners pushing for a female presence in the parliament are hopeful that attitudes are changing and in 2022 some will be succcessful.

This time round the Highlands provinces have the most candidates at 821, including nine women.

In East Sepik and Bougainville Provinces there is just a single woman candidate.

Sinai says the full official figures will be available from Monday.