Two more electoral lists submitted their respective lists of candidates and political platforms to the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) yesterday for the upcoming direct legislative election.
The two lists are the non-establishment New Macau Progressives (ANPM) headed by incumbent lawmaker Sulu Sou Ka Hou, and Power of Synergy headed by well-known current affairs commentator Ron Lam U Tou, a former journalist.
The direct and indirect legislative elections will take place on September 12.
Each direct election list must have at least four and no more than 14 candidates.
Both lists ran in the legislature’s direct election four years ago, when the first-ranked candidate of the New Macau Progressives list, Sou, was elected, while none of the candidates of the Power of Synergy list, which was then also headed by Lam, was elected.
A total of 19 electoral lists will run in the upcoming direct election. Four years ago, 25 candidacy lists vied for the 14 seats at stake.
The legislature’s 14 directly-elected members are chosen by universal suffrage, based on the proportional representation system, according to which the number of votes of each list’s first-ranked candidate is the number of votes of the list per se, the number of votes of the second-ranked candidate is half of the number of votes of the list, and the number of votes of the third-ranked candidate is one-fourth of the number of votes of the list, and so on.
In the 2017 direct election, the New Macau Progressives list garnered 9,213 votes, ranked 12th in terms of the number of votes obtained, enabling the list to be the last one that was elected, because the number of votes of the second-ranked candidates of the first two electoral lists which won the highest number of votes ranked 13th and 14th, which both exceeded the number of votes obtained by any of the remaining lists that were unelected. In the 2017 direct election, the Macau-Guangdong Union list won the highest number of votes 17,214 while the Union for Development list garnered the second highest number of votes 16,696, because of which their respective second-ranked candidates, Zheng Anting and Leong Sun Iok, got 8,607 votes and 8,348 votes respectively, so that Zheng and Leong ranked 13th and 14th.
Consequently, the Power of Synergy list which garnered 7,162 votes four years ago failed in its bid for a seat in the legislature’s hemicycle.
For the upcoming direct election, the New Macau Progressives list comprises five candidates, while the Power of Synergy list consists of seven candidates.
Sou is a vice-president of the non-establishment New Macau Association (NMA), while his electoral list’s second-ranked candidate, fellow political activist Rocky Chan Lok Kei, is also a NMA vice-president.
Sou and Chan first ran in the direct election in 2013, candidates of the New Democratic Macau Association list which was then headed by veteran lawmaker Au Kam San. Both Sou and Chan were unelected in the 2013 direct election. Sou was first elected four years ago, when Chan did not run in the election.
The second-ranked candidate of the Power of Synergy list is Ian Heng Ut, also a former journalist. Ian was also the list’s number-two candidate four years ago.
Sou and Lam spoke to reporters separately after submitting their respective lists of candidates and political platforms at the Public Administration Building in Rua do Campo yesterday.
Sou said that his electoral list would focus on issues such as housing, improvements in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) work on legislation and supervising the government, increased transparency of the legislature’s operation, and safeguarding political freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly under the “One Country, Two Systems” practice.
Sou also underlined that his electoral list has “wholeheartedly” signed the officially required declaration upholding the Macau Basic Law and bearing allegiance to the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR).
Sou said that his list will strive to win two seats this time.
Lam said that his electoral list would focus on issues such as measures improving residents’ daily lives, the diversified development of the local economy, and improvements in the legal system regulating housing and various other matters.
Lam said that his list was confident that it would win at least one seat this time.
Current directly-elected lawmaker Sulu Sou Ka Hou (centre), who will seek re-election, speaks to reporters at the Public Administration Building in Rua do Campo yesterday after his electoral list New Macau Progressives submitted his political platform to the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL), as the list’s second-ranked candidate Rocky Chan Lok Kei (right), and Kam Sut Leng, the president of the New Macau Association (NMA) – of which both Sou and Chan are vice-presidents – look on. Kam is not a candidate of the list.
Ron Lam U Tou (front), the number-one candidate of the Power of Synergy direct election list, speaks to reporters at the Public Administration Building yesterday. Photos: Prisca Tang
