MACAO -- A total of 15 residents in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) were confirmed as qualified candidates for deputies to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, according to a presidium meeting of the Conference for Electing Deputies of the Macao SAR to the 14th NPC on Wednesday.

The presidium held its second meeting earlier in the day, confirming that 15 out of the 16 applicants who had submitted candidate registration forms during the nomination period on Nov 22-28 met the qualifications of being Macao residents with Chinese citizenship aged 18 or above who had obtained at least 15 nominations from electoral conference members.

Some of the candidates are deputies to the 13th NPC, and some are members of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The voting will take place on Dec 12 at the second plenary session of the electoral conference. According to the method for the Macao SAR to elect deputies to the 14th NPC, a total of 12 deputies are to be elected in Macao.

Ho Iat Seng, chief executive of the Macao SAR and standing chairman of the presidium, presided over Wednesday's meeting.