A massive voting was kicked off Sunday morning to generate the third Legislative Assembly (LA) of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR).
   
In line with the Basic Law, the new LA will be composed of 29 members including 12 from the direct elections, 10 from the indirect elections, which are conducted by community representatives, and seven appointed by the MSAR's chief executive.
   
A total of 125 candidates from 18 social groups will contest in the direct elections, and 10 candidates, in the indirect elections.
   
The number of registered voters has reached 220,653, or nearly half of the region's population. The authorities predicted that the voters turn-out will range between 60 to 70 percent of all the registered voters.
   
A total of 228 voting booths have been set up in the city, 222 for the direct elections and six for the indirect elections.
   
The provisional results will hopefully be announced on early Monday morning.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2005)