Chief Executive Electoral Affairs Commission (CAECE) President Song Man Lei says that over 120 of the 348 accepted candidates for next month’s election of the Chief Executive Election Committee members, where 344 seats of its 400 members will be up for grabs, are newcomers, i.e., candidates running in the election for the first time.
Song made the remarks while speaking to reporters on Friday after chairing a regular closed-door meeting of the commission at the Public Administration Building on Rua do Campo.
Ex-CE Chui among newcomers
One of the newcomers for the Chief Executive Election Committee election is former chief executive Fernando Chui Sai On, who is one of the candidates for the committee’s educational segment.
Chui was Macau’s chief executive between December 20, 2009 and December 19, 2019.
Since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative (MSAR) on December 20, 1999, Chui had been the MSAR government’s secretary for social affairs and culture until May 2009 when he announced his candidacy for the head of the MSAR.
Chui was the principal of the local Keang Peng School in the 1990s.
A total of 348 permanent residents registered to run in next month’s election, during the registration period from June 18 to July 2.
Final list
The commission announced on Thursday last week that all of the 348 had been accepted as candidates, after which the full list of the accepted candidates was announced the next day. As no appeals were made to the Court of Final Appeal (TUI), the commission announced and published the final list of accepted candidates yesterday.
The lists announced on Friday and yesterday are identical, i.e., the 348 accepted candidates.
As 348 candidates will run in next month’s election, the number of candidates will only exceed the number of seats available by four.
The election of the chief executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) is held every five years. The head of the MSAR is elected by the 400-member Chief Executive Election Committee.
Current Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng’s five-year term at the helm of the MSAR government ends on December 19 this year. Ho, 67, has still to announce whether he intends to run for his second and constitutionally final five-year consecutive term.
This year’s election of the Chief Executive Election Committee members will be held on August 11.
Informed sources told the Post last week that Ho was expected to announce his candidacy for his second and constitutionally final five-year term shortly after August 11. Ho’s 29-day holiday will end this Friday.
The chief executive election is expected to be held in October at the earliest.
The 344 seats up for grabs next month comprise 120 seats from the first sector (comprising the industrial, commercial and financial segments), 26 from the cultural segment, 29 from the educational segment, 43 from the professional segment, 17 from the sports segment, 59 from the labour segment, and 50 from the social services segment.
For next month’s election, the educational and labour segments are the only ones where the number of seats available and the number of candidates is not identical, while the number of seats available and the number of candidates are the same in all other segments, namely the first sector (comprising the industrial, commercial and financial segments), the cultural segment, the professional segment, the sports segment, and the social services segment.
For next month’s election, the educational segment has 31 candidates, two more candidates than seats at stake, while the labour segment has 61 candidates, also two more candidates than the number of seats available.
A man yesterday takes photos of the final list of accepted candidates for next month’s Chief Executive Election Committee election, posted on the ground floor of the Public Administration Building on Rua do Campo. – Photo: Tony Wong
