‍‍The first round of voting for Hong Kong’s new chief executive closed at 11:00 a.m. BJT on Sunday with the counting due to begin at 11:45 a.m.

As of 10:30 a.m., 1,148 of the nearly 1,200 members of the election committee have cast their votes and turnout has exceeded 96 percent.

The election committee began voting at 9:00 a.m.

The vote takes place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, where the committee has been tasked with choosing from three candidates – Carrie Lam, John Tsang and Woo Kwok-hing – to succeed current leader Leung Chun-ying.

The three candidates welcomed the election committee members before the voting started.

Any candidate who secures over 601 votes will win the election.

The Electoral Affairs Commission could announce the election result as early as 12:30 p.m.

If there is no early winner, there will be another round of voting between the two candidates with the most votes scheduled between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Sunday.