Sam Hou Fai will announce at 11 a.m. today at the Macau Science Centre in Nape his candidacy for the sixth-term Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) chief executive (CE) seat.
The Sam Hou Fai Election Campaign Office Preparatory Group invited the media yesterday to this morning’s press conference, stating in an English-language letter that “Sam Hou Fai will be holding a press conference to announce his candidacy running for the sixth-term chief executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region, at the Convention Centre of the Macau Science Centre at 11 a.m. on Wednesday on August 28, 2024”.
Since Macau’s return to the motherland on December 20, 1999, Sam, 62, had been the president of the Court of Final Appeal (TUI) for nearly 25 years until midnight last night.
A chief executive order published in the Official Gazette (BO) on Monday confirmed Sam’s request to Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng to be relieved of his duties as president of the Court of Final Appeal and as one of the three judges of the Court of Final Appeal and as a member of the Independent Commission for the Recommendation of Judges of the Macau Special Administrative Region, making it clear that Sam would no longer remain in his judicial posts as of 00:00 of August 28 (today).
Sam, who chaired Macau’s council of judges, has been a member of the Working Committee on Regional Legal Assistance and International Mutual Legal Assistance, as well as the Honorary Chairman of the Macao Basic Law Promotion Association.
According to the Chief Executive Election Law, principal officials, members of the Executive Council, judicial officers and judicial auxiliaries are not eligible to be nominated as candidates, except those who have resigned or retired from their respective positions before the commencement date of the nomination for candidates in the Macau Special Administrative Region’s chief executive election, which, for the upcoming sixth-term chief executive election set on October 13, will start tomorrow and end on September 12.
Upon his departure from all his judicial posts with effect from today, Sam, who moved to Macau in 1986 as a native of Zhongshan City in Guangdong Province, has become eligible for nomination as a CE candidate.
Counting from tomorrow, Sam will have a maximum of 15 days to be endorsed by at least 66 of the 400 members of the Chief Executive Election Committee, or 16.5 percent of the electors, to formally launch his bid to become Macau’s sixth- term chief executive.
If, as generally expected, Sam will run unopposed and succeed in his election bid, Sam would become Macau’s first chief executive not born here.
Only permanent residents holding Chinese nationality who have lived “habitually” for at least 20 years and are at least 40 years of age at the end of the chief executive candidacy nomination period can run for Macau’s top post.
Potential chief election candidate Sam Hou Fai, no longer Macau’s top judge from today, speaks to reporters on the sidelines of last Thursday’s seminar by the Macau Alumni Association of Peking University Law School at The Plaza Restaurant in Zape. Sam is a graduate of the school. – Photo: MPDG
