The direct and indirect Legislative Assembly elections have been scheduled for September 17, according to an order by Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On published in the Official Gazette (BO) on Monday.
By law, all local elections must be held on a Sunday. Campaigning is not allowed on the eve of polling day. The official campaign period last two weeks.
According to another announcement in Monday’s gazette, the officially allowed maximum expenditure for each list of candidates in the upcoming elections has been set at MOP 3,549,622.
According to the Legislative Assembly Election Law, the chief executive is required to announce the date of the legislative elections at least 180 days before polling day.
According to the law, the maximum expenditure for each list of candidates is set by the chief executive, based on the latest population estimate and the number of registered voters as well as the city’s latest economic statistics.
Each list’s maximum expenditure also has to be less than 0.004 percent of the average of annual revenues in the government’s budgets over the past 10 years, according to the law.
The government expected, when presenting its 2017 budget bill late last year, total receipts of MOP 102.94 billion for this year.
The Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Committee (CAEAL) said in a statement that, with the date of the legislative elections having been set, the election process has been officially launched.
According to the statement, the number of registered voters for the upcoming legislative direct election stood at 307,020 at the end of last year, as compared to 277,153 eligible voters for the previous direct election in 2013.
According to the statement the number of “legal persons” having the right to vote stood at 858 at the end of last year unchanged from that at the end of 2012. “Legal person” voters refer to entities such as associations that have the right to cast their ballots in the legislature’s indirect election.
The direct election is for 14 lawmakers, while the indirect election is for 12 lawmakers, with another seven lawmakers appointed by the chief executive after the elections take place. The number of the three segments of lawmakers will remain unchanged from the current legislative term.
The 14 directly-elected legislators will be chosen by universal suffrage. The 12 indirectly elected lawmakers will be chosen by representatives of business, labour, professional, sports, educational, social welfare and other sectors.
According to the Legislative Assembly Election Law, a nomination committee has to be formed to set up a list of candidates to participate in the direct election. A nomination committee has to be formed by at least 300 or at most by 500 registered voters for the direct election.
The statement said that anyone who wants to form a nomination committee can get an application form, starting Thursday, either from the Public Administration Building in Rua do Campo or by downloading it at www.eal.gov.mo.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
