New York, August 5 (RHC)-- Fox News has chosen the top 10 Republican candidates to participate Thursday in the first debate of the 2016 presidential election.

The candidates include front-runner Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie and John Kasich, who eked out a spot as the 10th-highest polling candidate.

The remaining seven Republican candidates who will participate in a forum earlier in the afternoon are Carly Fiorina, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum, George Pataki and Jim Gilmore.

Fox News said it calculated its top 10 list by averaging five national polls, a process which came under fire from polling agencies earlier this week. The Marist Institute for Public Opinion temporarily suspended its polling, saying Fox’s debate criteria ignores the margin of error. Another top pollster, Monmouth University, said: "Based on current polling, there’s no good rationale for arbitrarily selecting a top ten."