Legislative Assembly (AL) President Ho Iat Seng will present his chief executive election platform during a press conference at Macau Tower this morning, his campaign office announced yesterday.
Ho was the first of currently four potential candidates to announce his possible bid for Macau’s top job. (More on p. 5)
On April 18, Ho told reporters that he had decided to run in the chief executive election later this year as he wants to promote Macau’s economic diversification and its participation in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) by making use of his experience in legislative tasks in both the National People’s Congress (NPC) and local legislature.
At the time of the announcement, the 62-year-old businessman-cum-veteran lawmaker was the sole Macau member of the elite NPC Standing Committee. He has meanwhile resigned from his NPC post so that he could go ahead with his chief executive candidacy. He is also set to resign from his post as speaker of the local legislature.
Ho’s intention to run for the special administrative region’s highest post initially emerged earlier this year when he told reporters on February 13 that he was “actively and prudently” considering running for chief executive.
GBA focus
On April 18, Ho told reporters that he had “provisionally” decided to run in the chief executive election after “studying the matter with many friends”. He also said Macau would need to have its legal system integrated with the nine GBA cities in Guangdong province in order for Macau to participate in the development of the 11-city conurbation, which apart from Macau also includes Hong Kong.
Ho said that thanks to its participation in the central government’s GBA project, Macau would be able to achieve further development and gain more geographical “space” for Macau’s continued development.
Ho is also a former member of the local government’s top advisory Executive Council.
Ho also told the media on April 18 that the most important thing for a chief executive was to form a good government team as “it is impossible for one person to finish all the many tasks”.
6.43 million pataca campaign limit
Meanwhile, the government announced in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday that each chief executive candidate can spend up to 6.43 million patacas on his or her election campaign.
The spending limit was announced in an executive order signed by Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On, whose term ends at midnight on December 19.
In the chief executive election campaign in 2014, the campaign spending limit amounted to 5.76 million patacas.
According to the Chief Executive Election Law, candidates’ campaign spending shall not exceed 0.02 percent of the government’s receipts budgeted for the year when the election takes place.
August 25 ballot
Meanwhile, the government yesterday also announced that the chief executive election will be held on Sunday, August 25. By law, all elections in Macau must be held on a Sunday.
The chief executive will be elected by a 400-member Chief Executive Election Committee. A total of 344 members of the committee were elected by association representatives on Sunday. The remaining 56 electors are ex-officio members, religious representatives chosen by their respective organisations, Macau’s NPC deputies and representatives of Macau’s members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) chosen by their peers, as well as two representatives of the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM).
Legislative Assembly (AL) President Ho Iat Seng speaks to reporters on the sidelines of a public event at MGM in Nape last month. Photo: Rachel Lei
