A candidate in Tonga's elections is encouraging the people to do more to provide for themselves.
Former Justice Minister, Alisi Taumoepeau, who's contesting a poll for the first time, says surveying of her Nuku'alofa electorate show that people are struggling to make ends meet.
She says she can't say how this might be countered because the real state of the nation's finances won't be revealed until the new government is in place.
But she says in the meantime she is encouraging people in her urban area to try and provide more of their own food.
"It may be going back to growing vegetables, to doing their own things, having their own meat, because there is land available and I think that is also something that we're learning from the Chinese. The very little land that you have, you can actually use, productively, to help with the daily things, which is what people are after."
