The 348 candidates nominated for places on the Chief Executive (CE) Election Committee – scheduled on 11 August – were announced yesterday by the CE Electoral Affairs Commission.
Voting will decide the allocation of 344 out of the 400 seats in the CE Election Committee, in polling scheduled for 11 August. The remaining seats on the committee, which decides who becomes Macao’s next leader, are allocated to legislators, representatives of religious groups, and delegates from organisations linked to the local and central government.
“There are quite a lot of new faces, with over 120 people participating in the election for the first time,” Song Man Lei, the president of the CE Electoral Affairs Commission, told local media. As well, most of the candidates are under the age of 65.
According to the list, 120 of those standing for election are from the industrial, commercial and financial sector, while 26 originate from the cultural sub-sector. Other sub-sectors include education and professional, which have 31 and 43 candidates respectively. Sports, labour and social services are fielding 17, 61 and 50 candidates respectively.
[See more: Macao’s Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng will announce candidacy in mid-August: report]
In order to be a member of the CE Election Committee, candidates are required to follow a number of criteria such as being an eligible voter over the age of 18 and swearing to uphold Macao’s mini constitution.
As for the number of voters that are eligible to participate in the polling for the CE Election Committee, official data cited by local media puts the figure at 6,200 – more than the approximately 5,700 voters that registered for the 2019 election.
A CE dispatch released today also unveiled the five members of the General Audit Committee for the CE Election Committee.
They include prosecutor coordinator and chairman of the committee, Kuok Kin Hong; prosecutor coordinator Cheong Kuok Chi; Joana Maria Noronha and Cheong Sek Lun of the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau; and Lai Ka Chon of the Statistics and Census Service.
