Court of Final Appeal (TUI) President Sam Hou Fai told the media last Thursday that he was “considering” running in the upcoming sixth-term chief executive election as encouraged by some of his friends to “continue to contribute to Macau”, and a chief executive order published in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday noted that the 62-year-old judge has tendered his resignation from all his posts in Macau’s judicial system.
The nomination period for candidates in the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) sixth-term chief executive election will start this Thursday and end on September 12, during which a potential chief executive candidate shall submit documents showing his or her endorsement by at least 66 of the 400 electors of the Chief Executive Election Committee, or 16.5 percent of its members, to get their candidacy off the ground. According to the Chief Executive Election Law, candidates who are principal officials or judicial officers of the MSAR must have resigned or retired from their respective positions before the commencement of the nomination period, otherwise they cannot be nominated.
When asked by the media last Thursday whether he intended to run in the sixth term of the Chief Executive election, Sam said he was considering it and would inform the public if he has come up with a decision, underlining that he “has always had a desire to serve Macau”.
Born in Guangdong Province, Sam was admitted to the Peking University’s Law School in 1981 and worked as a lawyer in Guangzhou before moving to Macau in 1986, where he became a judicial auditor and one of Macau’s first local trainee judges. He was appointed by Edmund Ho Hau Wah – the MSAR’s first chief executive – president of the Court of Final Appeal on December 20, 1999, when he was aged only 37. For the time being, Sam chairs Macau’s council of judges, has been the president of the Court of Final Appeal since Macau’s return to the motherland and is also a member of the Independent Commission for the Recommendation of Judges, a member of the Working Committee on Regional Legal Assistance and International Mutual Legal Assistance, as well as Honourable Chairman of the Macao Basic Law Promotional Association.
According to the MSAR Basic Law and the Chief Executive Election Law, candidates in the chief executive election must be at least 40 years old at the end of the nomination period, be a permanent local resident, hold Chinese nationality, do not have the right of abode in a foreign country, and must have “habitually” lived in Macau for at least 20 years.
Signed by Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng, yesterday’s chief executive order stated that “at the request of Judge Sam Hou Fai, he was relieved of his duties as president of the Court of Final Appeal, as a judge on the Court of Final Appeal and as a member of the Independent Commission for the Recommendation of Judges of the Macau Special Administrative Region, with effect from August 28, 2024 [tomorrow]”.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng, 67, announced last Wednesday, the day before Sam spoke to the media about his possible chief executive candidacy on the sidelines of a public event, that he would not run in the upcoming chief executive election, i.e., not seek a second five-year term, due to health concerns, unlike his predecessors – Edmund Ho Hau Wah and Fernando Chui Sai On – who both served their two five-year terms of office in 1999-2009 and 2009-2019 respectively.
According to the MSAR Basic Law, Macau’s chief executives can only serve two consecutive five-year terms.
Macau’s six-term chief executive election will likely take place at the Services Platform Complex for Commercial and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (aka Forum Macao Complex) on October 13.
This handout photo provided by the Court of Final Appeal (TUI) shows its president Sam Hou Fai delivering a speech during the Solemn Opening Session of the 2023/2024 Judicial Year at the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) on October 20 last year.
