Voters in Turkmenistan began to cast their ballots at 8:00 am local time (0300 GMT) on Sunday in the country's fourth parliamentary election, said reports from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan's capital.

Over 2.5 million Turkmens are eligible to vote at more than 2,000 booths in the country, while there are 27 overseas booths. Voting will close at 6:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) Sunday.

In accordance with the country's election law, there are a total of 125 contituencies in the current election and single winners will be elected in each of them for a term of five years. A total of 288 candidates are vying for the 125 seats in the legislature.