According to the list of officially approved candidates for the September 12 Legislative Assembly elections announced yesterday, there will be 128 candidates for the 14 directly-elected seats at stake – 9.1 candidates per seat up for grabs.
The final list of candidates was published by the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) yesterday morning.
The 128 candidates will represent 14 rival lists.
Five lists were disqualified from running in the direct election for various reasons: Macau Victory, Democratic Prosperous Macau Association, New Macau Progressives, Gaming New Macau, and New Macau Progressive Association. The initial 19 lists comprised 159 candidates.
Six candidates from three lists – Democratic Prosperous Macau Association, New Macau Progressives and New Macau Progressive Association – were barred from standing in the direct election after their lists’ separate appeals against their disqualifications were dismissed by Macau’s Court of Final Appeal (TUI). The court backed the commission’s stance that the candidates had shown to be disloyal to the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) and disrespectful to the Macau Basic Law.
According to the Legislative Assembly Election Law, the commission will conduct a drawing of lots today to determine the order in which the 14 candidacy lists will appear on the ballot papers.
The official election campaign period will run from August 28 to September 10 inclusive. No electioneering is allowed on the eve of the election as well as on polling day.
Electioneering before the official start of the campaign is prohibited.
The commission yesterday also issued a guideline which “requires the removal or deletion of any message of other kinds of information – displayed in either any public area or on an online platform – that aims to draw public attention to a particular candidate or candidates, and is targeted at encouraging voters, in an explicit or implicit way, to vote or not to vote for a particular candidate or candidates,” according to a statement by the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) yesterday.
According to the statement, the guideline also stipulates that the trustees and candidates of each list, as well as the trustees of the respective nomination committees, “must remove or delete any promotional material on or before midnight on August 2, 2021,” adding that “any violation of the guideline might amount to a criminal offence.”
Meanwhile, all 12 candidates for the 12 indirectly-elected seats in the legislature have all been approved by the commission. Consequently, the indirect election will be uncontested.
The legislature’s remaining seven members will be appointed by the chief executive after polling day.
The government’s poster promoting the September 12 Legislative Assembly elections
