The Chief Executive Electoral Affairs Commission has announced today that it has accepted Sam Hou Fai as the sole candidate for next month's chief executive election.
The commission announced its decision in a notice released through the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS).
The notice also lists the 386 members of the Chief Executive Election Committee who have formally endorsed ("nominated") Sam as chief executive candidate. Sam was the only person who had submitted his nomination form - including his 386 endorsements - to the Electoral Affairs Commission. Sam has been endorsed by 96.5 percent of the chief executive electors.
According to the notice, the Electoral Affairs Commission completed yesterday its eligibility review of Sam's chief executive candidature application. The commission concluded its review after the Macau Special Administrative Region's (MSAR) Committee for Safeguarding National Security had assessed and affirmed Sam's candidacy, namely in terms of his "sincere support" for the MSAR Basic Law and his "loyalty" to the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the MSAR.
The notice pointed out that, according to the Chief Executive Election Law, nominated candidates and members of the Chief Executive Election Committee may lodge appeals within one day of the Electoral Affairs Commission announcing its decision on the elegibility of the the nominated candidates. If no objections are received within the period, the notice underlined, a follow-up notice will be released on Friday to announce the final chief executive candidature list.
Sam, 62, is the former president of Macau's top court, the Court of Final Appeal (TUI). He resigned from his position as the MSAR's chief judge in late August so that he could run in the October 13 chief executive election. He had held the position since the establishment of the MSAR on December 20, 1999. He speaks Putonghua, Cantonese, Portuguese and English. Observers have described him as "down to earth" and "principled".
Born in Guangdong Province, Sam was admitted to 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 when the territory was still under temporary administration by Portugal. 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, aged 37. At that time, he was reportedly the world's youngest chief judge. Edmund Ho has publicly backed Sam's candidacy.
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, 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.
The 400-member Chief Executive Election Committee comprises both members elected by a wide range of community assocations and ex-officio members such as Macau's 12 deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC).
The chief executive election by secret ballot will be held at the Forum Macao Complex on Sunday, October 13. By law, all elections in Macau must be held on a Sunday.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng announced in late August that for health reasons he would not seek a second five-year term. A chief executive can only serve two consecutive terms.
Sam is set to become the MSAR's fourth head of government, i.e., chief executive, after Edmund Ho and Chui Sai On, each of whom served two consecutive five-year terms, and Ho Iat Seng's single term which ends at midnight on December 19, 2024.
The new chief executive and the MSAR's other principal officials are slated to be sworn in on December 20, 2024. A national leader is expected to pay an inspection visit to Macau at that time and to preside over the swearing-in ceremony.
Then still potential chief election candidate Sam Hou Fai speaks to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar by the Macau Alumni Association of Peking University Law School at The Plaza Restaurant in Zape on August 22. Sam is a graduate of the school.
