Sixth legislative election kicks off in Macao SAR

The election of the sixth Legislative Assembly of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) kicked off on Sunday morning, with more than 300,000 registered voters expected to cast their ballots in polling stations.

Thousands of voters went to polling stations ahead of the official voting time of 9am (0100 GMT) on Sunday. The polling will wrap up at 9pm (1300 GMT) in the same day.

In line with the provisions of the Basic Law, the sixth legislature will be composed of 33 seats - 14 directly-elected seats, 12 indirectly-elected seats, and seven others appointed by the Macao SAR's chief executive.

There are a total of 307,020 eligible voters in direct election, up 11.23 percent from the previous election in 2013.

The 859 legal person voters, up by 19.47 percent from the previous election in 2013, will vote in indirect election.

A total of 186 candidates will run for the 14 directly-elected seats, while 15 candidates from six vocational groups will run for the 12 indirectly-elected seats.

There are 42 polling stations setting up in all districts for voters' convenience, based on voters' permanent residence address.

To ensure the voting rights of residents who are serving their terms of imprisonment, the authorities also set up a polling station in the Macao Prison.

Under Macao's law on voter registration, only permanent residents of Macao aged 18 and above have the right to vote.