The president and vice-president of the 7th Legislative Assembly of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR), businessmen Kou Hoi In and Chui Sai Cheong, have been re-elected, as widely expected.
Kou – Macao’s longest-serving incumbent lawmaker – received 32 of the 33 votes cast. Jose Chui Sai Peng garnered one vote.
Chui Sai Cheong, the elder brother of former MSAR chief executive Chui Sai On, garnered 30 votes. His cousin Jose Chui, banker Ip Sio Kai and restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo each won one vote for vice-president. Jose Chui is an engineer and urban planner.
Kou, who was born in 1953, has headed the legislature since 2019 when he replaced Ho Iat Seng who was then running for the post of Macao’s chief executive. Ho has been chief executive of the MSAR since December 2019.
After his re-election, Kou promised to maintain dialogue with his peers and to improve the legislature’s monitoring of the government.
Civic leader Ho Ion Sang and businessman Si Ka Lon were elected first and second secretary of the legislature respectively.
Before the elections by secret ballot in the legislature’s hemicycle, the 33 lawmakers were sworn in last Saturday morning by the chief executive during a brief ceremony held at the nearby China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Commercial and Trade Service Platform Complex, where Kou was sworn in by the chief executive as president (speaker) of the legislature shortly after his re-election in the afternoon.
Macao’s Legislative Assembly elections were held on 12 September. While 14 lawmakers were directly elected by universal suffrage based on the proportional representation system, 12 were re-elected unopposed by association representatives. After the direct and indirect elections, the chief executive appointed seven legislators. The new legislature includes just five women, or 15 per cent of the total, even though 53 per cent of the population is female. Ten lawmakers are newcomers to the hemicycle. Macao’s elections are held every four years.
