Macau, China, 11 May – The election of the third Chief Executive of the Special Administrative Region of Macau, who will succeed Edmund Ho Hau Wa, has been set for 26 July, according to an Executive Order in the Macau SAR Official Gazette.
Edmund Ho, who on 19 December ends his second and last consecutive term as permitted by law, has been the Chief Executive of Macau since 20 December, 1999, which is when Portugal handed over the administration of the territory to the People’s Republic of China.
The new Chief Executive will be elected by a secret vote by a 300-member election committee, which includes representatives from various sectors of Macau.
Last week the local Chinese-language Va Kio daily wrote that Macau’s Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Fernando Chui Sai On is preparing his resignation to run for Chief Executive post.
The paper said that Chui Sai On will resign in the middle of this month.
The Va Kio also reported that his resignation must be formally approved by the central government in Beijing.
The nominations for chief executive candidates were slated to be formalised in the middle of June while campaigning was scheduled to take place on July 10-24.
Fernando Chui Sai On still has to announce publicly his willingness to run for chief executive.
Born in Macau in January 1957, Fernando Chui Sai On graduated from California State University at Sacramento in Community Health and later obtained a Master’s degree in Health Administration and a Ph.D. in Public Health at the University of Oklahoma.
Chui Sai On served on the Legislative Assembly from 1992 to 1995 and was Chief of the Medical and Health Department of the Tung Sin Tong Charitable Institution and Executive Director of Kiang Wu Hospital Board of Charity.
In August 1999 Chui Sai On was appointed Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macau government and in December 2004 was reappointed for a second term as secretary.
Two ongoing polls being carried out in MacauNews and weekly magazine Closer show Ho Chio Meng, Prosecutor General of Macau, as the favourite to replace Edmund Ho.
In second place is Francis Tam Pak Yuen, Secretary for Economy and Finance, and in a distant third is Fernando Chui Sai On.
(MacauNews)
