In its campaign platform for the upcoming direct legislative election, the Dialogue Power candidacy list (言起新力量), the No.7 on the ballot paper, urges the government to roll out “down-to-earth” measures and policies.
The candidacy list also puts special emphasis on measures enabling increased participation by young people in Macau’s governance.
The Dialogue Power list is running in the legislative election for the first time. The list is headed by Angelo Choi Man Cheng, 40, who works in the new media design sector.
The Dialogue Power list comprises nine candidates. The list’s number-two candidate is Lai On Na, 39, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner by profession.
Choi became the president of the Macau Youth Federation – one of the city’s biggest community associations – last year, of which Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long is the chairman.
The Macau Youth Federation was established in 2006, of which prominent businessman Chan Meng Kam, a former lawmaker, is the founding chairman.
Choi is also a member of the Chengdu Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
The list’s number-four candidate is Hoi Long, a hearing-impaired triathlete.
The list’s platform says that many of the measures and polices that have been launched by the government “are not down-to-earth”, adding the fact that its candidates work in various sectors would enable it to propose “down-to-earth” policies in the legislature.
The platform urges the government to require future gaming operators to assume greater social responsibility through the upcoming bidding process for the granting of future gaming concessions.
With the aim of boosting Macau’s economic recovery through tourism, the platform calls for lengthening the validity of the negative nucleic acid test (NAT) result for those travelling between Macau and the mainland who have been inoculated against COVID-19. In addition, the platform also urges the Macau government to discuss with foreign countries possible quarantine-free travel arrangements based on the mutual recognition of each other’s COVID-19 vaccination records.
The platform urges the government to finally get its sandwich class housing scheme off the ground.
The platform calls for an increase in the number of sources of imports of daily necessities, including fresh food, so as to “break the monopoly” with the aim of reducing residents’ cost of living.
The platform calls for the government to appoint more young people to its various consultative committees, which the candidacy list said would “enable young local people to gain experience in governance and give feedback accordingly”. The platform says that this would raise young people’s “sense of participation”.
The platform also urges the government to tackle flooding affecting the city’s low-lying areas, such as by revamping the city’s underground drainage network
The platform also calls for measures promoting electric vehicles, waste sorting and kitchen waste collection.
The candidacy list also calls for the construction of an “animal-friendly” city. The platform calls for heavier penalties on those violating animal protection rules.
The platform urges the government to strengthen measures supporting various disadvantaged groups, calling for the “widespread” setting-up of barrier-free facilities across the city.
The platform calls for the setting-up of an online system evaluating senior officials’ performance in policymaking, with the aim of “strictly preventing policies that are disconnected with the reality”.
The number-two candidate of the Dialogue Power direct-election list, Lai On Na, hands a campaign leaflet to a woman on an electric wheelchair in San Kio district on Sunday, as the number-one candidate Angelo Choi Man Cheng looks on. Photo: Dialogue Power
