Some of the candidates of six Macau Legislative Assembly direct-election candidacy lists who were officially notified by the Macau Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission yesterday that they are ineligible to run in the September 12 election because they don't respect the Macau Basic Law and have been disloyal to the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) vowed today that they will appeal the decision and insisted that they wouldn't replace their candidates.
The non-establishment candidates - including incumbent lawmakers Ng Kuok Cheong and Sulu Sou Ka Hou, former lawmaker Paul Chan Wai Chi and high-profile activist Scott Chiang Meng Him - gave a joint press conference today about how they would respond to their disqualification (DQ).
The press conference was held at Ng's office. Sou vowed to continue his political "fight".
The six groups have the right to appeal through Monday. They also have the right to change their candidates.
According to the Macau Legislative Legislative Election Law, each direct-election list must have at least four and no more than 14 candidates.
Macau's legislature comprises 14 lawmakers directly elected by universal suffrage, 12 legislators indirectly elected by association representatives and seven appointed by the chief executive after the election. Macau's elections are based on the proportional representation system.
Two other candidates from another list were also told by the commission yesterday that they were ineligible to run in the upcoming election because they are not registered voters.
The commission had announced on Wednesday that a total of 19 lists had fielded 159 candidates vying for the 14 directly-elected seats at stake, or 11.3 candidates per seat at stake.
If all the 23 candidates are finally disqualified, 14.4 percent of the 159 provisionally accepted candidates would be barred from running in the election.
Meanwhile, veteran lawmaker Jose Maria Pereira Coutinho has told reporters that there's "no problem" with his candidacy list. Some media reports claimed that Coutinho was "believed" to have been disqualified as well. Coutinho heads the Macau Civil Servants Association (ATFPM).
Macau has no political parties. Political organisations customarily set up candidature "lists" several weeks before the direct and indirect elections every four years.
