Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng, who took 13 consecutive days holiday from June 21 to Wednesday this week, is continuing his holiday for 16 more days, according to an executive order published in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday.
The extended holiday period began yesterday.
According to the order, which was signed by Ho yesterday, his ongoing 16-day extended holiday is scheduled to end on July 19, during which Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon continues to be acting chief executive.
Consequently, including the ongoing 16-day extension which started yesterday, Ho is taking a holiday lasting 29 consecutive days in total, with July 19 as the last day.
According to official records, Ho, who took office on December 20, 2019, did not take any holiday during the three-year COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 through 2022. Since assuming office, Ho took a holiday for the first time last year, for just three days at the end of April.
Before his current holiday of 13 days plus 16 days, Ho had a holiday twice earlier this year – two days in late April and two days early last month, according to the gazette.
Consequently, including his ongoing holiday of 29 days in total, Ho has so far been on vacation for 36 days in total since assuming office.
Ho’s current five-year term at the helm of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) government ends on December 19 this year. Ho, 67, has still to announce whether he intends to run for a new five-year term. According to Article 48 the MSAR Basic Law, the chief executive of the MSAR may serve for not more than two consecutive terms.
Ho’s predecessor Fernando Chui Sai On, who took office on December 20, 2014 for his second chief-executive term, took holidays lasting 22, 18, 34, 31, and 18 days a year, respectively, from 2015 to 2019, according to calculations by the Post based on historical records published in the gazette. Consequently, Chui took holidays of 123 days in total during his second five-year chief-executive term, or 24.6 days a year on average.
During his second five-year chief-executive term, Chui took his longest holiday of nine days in a row, from late July to early August in 2016, according to the gazette.
This photo released by the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) on June 17 shows Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng (right) meeting with Zhu Guoxian, chairman of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), at Government Headquarters at that time.
