The 2024 Macao Chief Executive (CE) election is scheduled to take place on 13 October, according to an executive order published this morning. Each candidate is permitted to spend up to 6.44 million patacas on their campaign, as was stated by a second executive order.
The two announcements followed the polling’s conclusion for the 2024 CE Election Committee, which saw a record high voter turnout rate of 88.12 percent on Sunday.
Voting for the members of the 400-seat committee is an important precursor to the CE election, as that body – consisting of representatives from various sectors of the SAR, as well as political and religious delegates – is responsible for deciding who will become Macao’s next leader.
[See more: ‘Record highs’ in voter turnout for CE election committee]
Incumbent CE Ho Iat Seng has not yet said whether he’ll be running for a second five-year term. However, he is widely expected to announce his candidacy soon – as both his predecessors, Edmund Ho and Fernando Chui, served two back-to-back five-year terms.
While most of Macao’s CE elections have taken place with a single candidate, a local entrepreneur has announced his intention to run in this year’s. Jorge Chiang, the head of the Macau Institutionalism Association and the Macao Lotus Commerce Association, will first need to garner enough nominations from the Election Committee to secure his place on the ballot.
Under Macao’s mini constitution (known as the Basic Law), any CE must be a Chinese national who “ordinarily resided in Macao for a continuous period of not less than 20 years.”
A new election law passed late last year requires candidates for the role of CE to be thoroughly vetted for allegiance to the People’s Republic of China and to sign a declaration of allegiance to Beijing as well as Macao.
