Polls have opened for new National Assembly elections in Vietnam.
The election, open to only members of the Communist Party of Vietnam and a handful of authorised independent candidates, will determine the makeup of a legislature widely perceived as a rubber stamp for the regime.
Independent members of the 500-seat assembly have long been outnumbered by the ruling party, 458 to 42 in the outgoing assembly.
Most independent candidates are selected by state-aligned institutions, but a handful nominate themselves after petitioning their communities and receiving the blessing of a Party-aligned organisation known as the Fatherland Front.
Only 11 candidates out of 162 people who initially nominated themselves have been allowed to run this year, the lowest rate of self-nominees since 1997.
Nguyen Minh Thuyet, former vice chairman of the National Assembly's Culture and Education Committee, said the election was a formality.
"There is no election campaign, and the competition is just formalistic. Voters do not know much about candidates and only a few voters can meet them," he said.
The expected voter turnout was 69 million out of a population of 95 million.
The election council reported a 90 per cent turnout in the 2011 election.
The election results are scheduled to be announced on June 11, with the new assembly to convene in July.
