Preparations for the upcoming election on May 22 are completed, said Tran Huu Thang, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, at an online conference in Hanoi on May 16.

He said the Election Council had conducted three reviews of the election preparations and that all was in order.

"Each city and province has received extra funding to organise the elections in a quick and convenient way," he said.

For these elections there are 827 candidates for seats in the National Assembly. There are 183 polling stations.

At the conference, a representative from the central province of Thanh Hoa 's Department of Home Affairs said there were 800,000 ballots with the candidates' names in handwriting rather than in print.

Minister Tran Van Tuan said the local election board would remedy the problem as quickly as possible. The province he said had just been allocated extra funds of 23 billion VND (1.12 million USD).

Regarding the situation of the southern province of Binh Duong , home to thousands of migrant workers, Tuan said the provincial Department of Home Affairs should run further promotional campaigns.

"The province should make a special list of 460.000 voters who are migrant workers and strictly oversee this to ensure they can exercise their citizens' rights and responsibilities," Tuan said.

The minister added that ballots should only be counted after 7 pm on the election day. /.