HONG KONG, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The nomination period for the Legislative Council (LegCo) of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) by-election started Tuesday and will run until Jan. 29.

The LegCo of HKSAR has 70 legislators, including 35 members returned by functional constituencies and 35 members returned by geographical constituencies.

The by-election will be held to fill four vacancies in membership of the LegCo, including three geographical constituencies vacancies which are Hong Kong Island, Kowloon West and New Territories East; and one vacancy for the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape functional constituency.

At the swearing-in ceremony of LegCo in 2016, six members were successively disqualified by the court as their oaths were invalid.

The by-election will be held to fill four of the six vacancies. The other two vacancies are temporarily left to be filled in that the two members involved are still on appeal.