The Power of Synergy electoral list (傳新力量), the No. 6 on the ballot paper for the upcoming direct legislative election, puts special emphasis on measures increasing the city’s ability to prevent disasters and flooding and promoting the environmental protection.

The platform also calls for increased transparency of governance, urging the government to get its accountability system for senior officials finally off the ground.

The Power of Synergy list is running in the direct election for the second time after failing in its bid for a seat in the legislature’s hemicycle four years ago, when it garnered 7,162 votes, the second highest among the unelected direct election lists in the 2017 election.

As four years ago, the list is headed again by current affairs commentator Ron Lam U Tou, 40.

As in the 2017 direct election, the list’s number-two candidate is also Johnson Ian Heng Ut, 46. Both Lam and Ian previously worked for the local Chinese-language newspaper Macao Daily News. Ian, also a current affairs commentator, currently runs an advertising consulting firm. This time, the list comprises seven candidates.

The list’s campaign platform calls for the tidal gate project in the Inner Harbour, which has still not been launched, to be designed and constructed with high standards.

The platform also urges the government to revamp the city’s underground drainage network. It also urges the government to get its 10-year disaster prevention and mitigation plan off the ground, such as raising the amount of electricity generated locally to at least 50 percent of the city’s power consumption and building new reservoirs.

The platform urges the government to supply at least 3,000 public housing units every year over the next 10 years.

The platform calls for legislation requiring Macau’s whole waterfront to be earmarked for public use.

The platform calls for the setting-up of recycling facilities in high-rise residential buildings and the construction of a “large-scale” kitchen waste processing plant. The list also urges the government to promote electric vehicles and to gradually increase Macau’s green space per capita.

The platform also urges the government to resume its trap-neuter-release (TNR) programme.

Moreover, the platform wants the government to pay a subsidy, accounting for a certain percentage of their monthly salary, to fresh graduates and unemployed residents choosing to work in local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The platform urges the Government Information Bureau (GCS) to thoroughly review its current model subsidising the operation of local media outlets and improve the system in a way that provides incentives for media organisations that perform better than others.

The platform calls for the gradually increased number of residents taking part the indirect legislative election and the chief executive election. The platform says that the indirect legislative election should ultimately be held by popular vote involving all members of each sector, a change from the current practice in which indirectly-elected lawmakers are only chosen by the representatives of each sector’s associations, not all the associations’ members. The platform also calls for the election of the chief executive by popular vote. Currently, the chief executive is elected by a 400-member committee.

The number-one candidate of the Power of Synergy direct-election list, Ron Lam U Tou (left), hands a campaign leaflet to a man in Rua da Barca in San Kio district last week, as the number-two candidate Johnson Ian Heng Ut looks on. Photo: Power of Synergy