Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai said yesterday that Macau’s whole civil society “enthusiastically” participated in this year’s direct and indirect Legislative Assembly (AL) elections, where candidacy groups were carrying out their respective election campaigns in a “very orderly and healthy” manner.
The chief executive said that the 2025 direct and indirect legislative elections enjoyed a “good” electoral atmosphere.
Sam made the remarks while speaking to reporters yesterday morning after casting his ballot at the polling station set up at Instituto Salesiano Catholic school.
Sam said that he was “happy” after exercising his political right and civic duty to vote, while noting the efficiency of the voting process, with clear instructions and smooth operations across the 38 polling stations for the direct election, the five polling stations for the indirect election, and the 29 electoral service posts. He also underlined that voters only needed to wait for a short time to cast their ballots.
Sam noted that yesterday’s direct and indirect legislative elections were the first ones held since the Legislative Assembly Election Law was amended last year, aiming to ensure the full implementation of the “patriots governing Macau” principle.
The chief executive also noted that members of the Legislative Assembly have three main statutory functions and duties, namely lawmaking, supervising the government’s law-based administration, and representing public opinion.
Sam noted that the legislators’ first function and duty is to “transform residents’ desires for different things into new laws” so that the government can implement the respective measures to fulfil the desires that require the enactment of the laws.
Voting not only a right but also a civic duty
Meanwhile, speaking to the media while inspecting the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion polling station on Friday, Sam underlined that voting is not only residents’ right but also their civic duty.
Sam said that voters should participate in the legislative elections, “fulfilling their voting obligations and being supporters and practitioners, rather than mere observers”.
The chief executive also inspected a polling station set up at Kao Yip Middle School in Nape on Friday.
Sam also underlined that the Legislative Assembly election is a very important political event for the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR), noting that this year’s direct election list of six candidacy groups is broadly representative, with 71 candidates from various sectors and professional fields within civil society.
Sam was accompanied on his inspection tour of the two polling stations on Friday by Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon and Seng Ioi Man, president of the Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election (CAEAL), as well as other CAEAL members.
Apart from the direct election by universal suffrage of 14 lawmakers, another 12 legislators were elected by business, labour, education, sports and other association representatives yesterday, while seven members of the Legislative Assembly will be appointed by Sam some time after the direct and indirect elections.
Proportional representation system
Macau uses the proportional representation system. Electors vote for candidacy groups, not individual candidates. There were 5.1 candidates per seats up for grabs in yesterday’s direct legislative election.
There were 328,506 registered voters eligible to cast their ballots in yesterday’s direct legislative election among Macau’s population of 686,000 (as of the end of June). Permanent residents have the right to vote, irrespective of nationality and place of birth. The minimum age for both voters and candidates is 18. There are no political parties in Macau. Customarily, community organisations set up ad hoc candidacy groups in the run-up to the elections that are held every four years. Voters cast their ballots for groups, not individual candidates.
Macau treats the entire territory as one single constituency for its direct elections.
The mathematical formula used to distribute the 14 directly elected seats among the candidacy groups is based on the “highest averages” method designed to favour larger groups. That’s how it works:
Step 1: Each group receives a certain number of votes.
Step 2: The total votes for each group are divided by a series of divisors (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.).
Step 3: The resulting quotients from all groups are ranked from highest to lowest.
Step 4: The 14 highest quotients each win a seat for the group that produced that quotient.
Voter turnout in 2021 was 42.38 percent. Legislative Assembly elections are held every four years. By law, they must take place on a Sunday.
Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai casts his ballot at the Instituto Salesiano polling station yesterday morning. – Photo: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
