Macau’s chief executive candidacy nomination period will run between August 29 and September 12, the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) Chief Executive Electoral Affairs Commission (CAECE) has announced.
According to a statement by the commission on Friday, anyone interested in running for the MSAR’s top post can collect their candidacy proposal form from the electoral affairs counter at the Public Administration Building on Rua do Campo in person or through a designated representative and return the filled-in form to the counter during the nomination period.
The potential candidates also need to present a signed statement confirming that they uphold the MSAR Basic Law and are loyal to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the MSAR.
The commission will vet the form and statement handed in by the potential candidate, which will also be submitted to the MSAR’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security (CDSE) for its binding appraisal of the candidacy application, which will assess whether the potential candidate upholds the MSAR Basic Law and is loyal to the PRC and the MSAR. The CDSE appraisal cannot be appealed.
The 400-member Chief Executive Election Committee will elect the MSAR’s sixth-term head of government on Sunday, October 13. By law, all elections in Macau are held on a Sunday.
A potential chief executive candidate requires the endorsement of at least 66 members of the 400 electors, or 16.5 percent of its members, to get his or her candidacy off the ground.
According to the MSAR Basic Law and the Chief Executive Election Law, the chief executive must be at least 40 years old at the end of the nomination period, be a permanent local resident, hold Chinese nationality, does not have the right of abode in a foreign country, and must have “habitually” lived in Macau for at least 20 years.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng’s current five-year term ends at midnight on December 19, 2024. Ho has still to announce whether he wishes to seek a second five-year term – as did his two predecessors – Edmund Ho Hau Wah (December 20, 1999 to December 19, 2009) and Fernando Chui Sai On (December 20, 2009 to December 19, 2019).
The MSAR was set up by the PRC on December 20, 1999.
According to the MSAR Basic Law, Macau’s chief executive can serve no more than two consecutive five-year terms.
Ho Iat Seng, a former president of the Macau Legislative Assembly (AL) and ex-member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), started his current term about a month before the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact Macau’s economy, its tourism, entertainment and retail sectors in particular, for three years. Observers say that Ho’s steady-handed policies and close coordination with the central government in Beijing succeeded in getting Macau through the pandemic relatively unscathed and preparing well its ongoing recovery.
Ho, born in Macau in June 1957, is a former business community leader. He began his political career in the 1970s as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) for Zhejiang Province. His family originates from Zhejiang.
Ho is widely expected to be the only candidate for the upcoming election on October 13.
Apart from the chief executive election in 1999, when there were two candidates – Edmund Ho and Stanley Au Chong Kit – vying for Macau’s top post, all the other chief executive elections (2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019) only involved one candidate each time.
Pedestrians walk past the Public Administration Building on Rua do Campo on Saturday, with an official announcement about Macau’s chief executive candidacy nomination period posted on the ground-floor display window. – Photo: Tony Wong
