Ex-CE Chui ‘strongly backs’ Sam’s candidacy
Potential chief executive (CE) candidate Sam Hou Fan continues to call on the 400-member Chief Executive Election Committee to nominate him, visiting the committee’s representatives of Macau’s 38 members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and education sector on the premises of the Macau Management Association (MMA) in Zape and The Chinese Educators Association of Macau in the city centre respectively.
Chen Hong, a CPPCC member, said during yesterday’s closed-door meeting that all 29 electors from the education sector, including Macau’s former chief executive Fernando Chui Sai On, have signed Sam’s nomination form, pledging “practical actions” to support his campaign to be elected by the committee on October 13.
On Tuesday afternoon, Sam – the former president of the Court of Final Appeal (TUI), accompanied by his election campaign representatives, including Macau Legal Promotion Association President Lei Wun Kong, a CPPCC member, Macau Legislative Assembly (AL) member and Macau Bankers’ Association Chairman Ip Sio Kai, as well as General Union of Neighbourhood Associations of Macau (commonly known as Kai Fong) President Chan Ka Leong, listened to the views and suggestions of 10 CPPCC members elected by their peers to be members of the Chief Executive Election Committee, including indirectly-elected lawmaker Ho Ion Sang, who is also the vice chairman of Kai Fong.
In concluding the meeting, according to a statement by the Sam Hou Fai Election Campaign Office yesterday, Ho said that Macau’s laws needed to keep up with the times to avoid any negative impact by lagging behind, and that the legal convergence of the systems of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau required a great deal of optimisation work, urging Sam’s election manifesto to include improvements in legislative coordination, enhanced interaction and cooperation between the executive and the legislature, as well as the optimisation of the quality and efficiency of the legislative process, in particular in response to the urgent needs of people’s livelihoods.
Also accompanied by Lei, Ip and Chan, Sam listened to the views and suggestions on the future development of education from the 29 members of the committee’s education sector constituency yesterday morning.
During the meeting, according to a separate statement by Sam’s election campaign office later yesterday, Fernando Chui Sai On, Macau’s third- and fourth-term chief executive who is one of the electors of the committee’s education sector constituency, endorsed Sam’s philosophy of administration of “forging ahead together by upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground” and threw his strong support behind Sam’s candidature for the sixth-term chief executive election, pointing out the impact of the city’s “sub-replacement fertility” on civil society and the current challenges to the education sector.
As cited by both statements, in introducing his declaration of candidacy at the two meetings, Sam vowed to give full play to the unique advantages of the “One Country, Two Systems” principle, to take more pragmatic measures in the development of the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, to proactively and accurately respond to the nation’s strategies, to take full advantage of Macau’s strengths by enhancing the “One Centre, One Platform and One Base” development, and to make greater contributions to Macau’s integration into the nation’s development as well as to create a “highland for Macau’s international high-end talents”, polishing the city’s “golden business card” as an international metropolis so that it can shine even brighter while making greater contributions to integrating Macau into the overall situation of the nation’s development.
In line with the Chief Executive Law, Sam shall submit documents by next Thursday showing that he has been endorsed by at least 66 of the 400 members of the Chief Executive Election Committee, or 16.5 percent of the electors, in order to be able to formalise his candidature. The committee comprises 120 electors from the industrial, commercial and financial sectors, 26 from the cultural, 29 from the education, 43 from the professional and 17 from the sports sectors, as well as 59 electors from the labour, 50 from the social services and six from the religious – Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist and Taoist – sectors, including Macau’s 12 deputies to the National People’s Congress (NPC) who are ex-officio members, as well as 12 representatives of Macau’s 38 members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), 14 of the 33 members of the Macau Legislative Assembly (AL) and two of the city’s municipal organs.
No-other potential candidate has so far come forward to canvass the 400 electors to support his or her candidature for the top post of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR).
Observers have said they expect Sam to be the only candidate.
Current Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng announced on August 21 that he would not seek a second five-year term “for health concerns”.
This handout photo provided by the Sam Hou Fai Election Campaign Office yesterday shows Fernando Chui Sai On (left) – Macau’s third- and fourth-chief executive – and potential sixth-term chief executive candidate Sam Hou Fai shaking hands on the sidelines of yesterday’s meeting with all 29 members of the 400-member Chief Executive Election Committee’s education sector constituency, at The Chinese Educators Association of Macau on Rua do Campo.
