The Venezuelans will vote on Sunday to choose the country's president. Following are some key facts about the presidential elections of the South American country.

All Venezuela's citizens over 18 years of age are eligible to vote. Some 16 million Venezuelans from a population of 27 million have registered to elect a new president, whose term will run from 2007 to 2013. Up to 57,667 overseas Venezuelans will also vote in their resident countries.

Voting is scheduled to begin at 6:00 a.m. local time (1000 GMT) on Sunday at around 33,002 ballot tables of 11,118 polling stations in all 23 states plus capital Caracas, and end at 4:00 p.m. (2000 GMT).

Preliminary results are to be announced three hours later, initial results are expected to come out late Sunday or early Monday.

The National Electoral Council designed a type of voting table with horseshoe shape in order to keep vote casting in secret to the largest possible extent. Digital thumbprint devices aimed at preventing voters from casting multiple ballots will be used by about 40 percent of the voters in the most populous states and along Venezuela's borders.

According to Venezuela's constitution, president is elected for a six-year term by universal adult suffrage and may serve consecutive terms. Executive power is vested in the president, who is both head of state and head of government.

There is only one round of voting, the one who garners the largest number of the votes is the winner. There are 14 candidates competing for the presidency in the current elections.

According to the latest opinion poll, of the two leading presidential candidates, incumbent President Hugo Chavez, who is seeking re-election, is expected to beat opposition candidate Manuel Rosales.

Some 128,900 soldiers and reservists have been deployed across the country for the elections. At least 1,410 observers will monitor the elections, including 130 representatives from the European Union, 60 from the Organization of American States, 10 from the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and 10 from the Carter Center.

More than 5,000 journalists, both domestic and international, will cover the elections.

Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter and the only Latin American member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has proven oil resources of about 78 billion barrels of crude and an output of about 3 million barrels a day.

Source: Xinhua