The Macau government announced today that the direct and indirect elections for the local legislature will be held on September 12.
The announcement was made in an executive order, dated February 9, signed by Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng.
Based on Macau's Portuguese-style proportional representation election system, the legislature's direct and indirect elections are always held on a Sunday.
Macau's legislature has 33 members (deputies) - 14 directly elected by universal suffrage, 12 indirectly elected by registered association representatives and seven appointed by the chief executive.
The elections are held every four years. Permanent residents, irrespective of nationality and place of birth, aged at least 18 have the right to vote. Election candidates must be permanent residents aged at least 18.
Meanwhile, according to a separate executive order published in the Official Gazette today, each candidate can spend up to 3,549,622 patacas (US$443,947) on his or her election campaign.
A total of 25 groups ("lists") vied for the 14 directly-elected seats in the September 17, 2017 Legislative Assembly elections in which 174,872 voters cast their ballots, amounting to a voter turnout of 57.22 percent, according to official data.
The lowest number of votes that sufficed to win a directly-elected seat in the legislature's hemicycle amounted to 8,348 in 2017. The highest number stood at 17,214.
