 This represented a 15 percent drop in the number of registered voters from the 2007 midterm legislative elections.To be eligible to run in the 2008 Congressional election, each candidate was required to be a United States citizen, at least 25 years of age, and must have resided in the Northern Mariana Islands for at least seven years before the election.Candidates were also required to be registered CNMI voters on the day of the election (November 4, 2008) and could not seek any other elected office simultaneously.