The votes are in for Macao’s 2024 Chief Executive Election Committee, which saw a voter turnout reach 88.12 percent on Sunday, according to a statement from the Government Information Bureau (known by its Portuguese initials GCS). This was a landmark election, being the first since the revision of the Chief Executive Election Law took effect at the start of this year.
There were 348 candidates – 120 of them first-timers – contesting the 344 seats up for grabs. Voters consisted of 5,521 representatives from over 500 associations, and GCS noted that their average age was younger than usual.
“Both the total number of voters and the overall voter turnout reached record highs in the history of the Chief Executive Election Committee poll,” GCS noted. It added that the result reflected “support for, and recognition of, the new election system across society.”
[See more: Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng’s long holiday is fuelling election speculation]
The 400-seat CE election committee decides who becomes Macao’s next leader in this year’s chief executive election. The remaining 56 seats will be allocated to legislators, representatives of religious groups, and delegates from organisations linked to the local and central government.
The 2024 Chief Executive election will take place mid-October. Macao’s last CE election was held in August 2019 and saw the only candidate – Macao’s current Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng – voted into the role.
While Ho recently spent more than a month on leave from the top job due to health reasons and has not yet announced his intention to run in the upcoming election, it is understood his name will be on the ballot.
Macao Chief Executives typically run as sole candidates and serve two terms. This year, the entrepreneur Jorge Chiang – head of the Macau Institutionalism Association and the Macao Lotus Commerce Association – has declared his intention to stand as a candidate.
Chiang will need to secure enough nominations from the CE election committee members before he can officially become a candidate, however. According to him, Macao needs to demonstrate more boldness to “innovate” and to “start afresh”. He has said he would establish a responsible and clean government, in a society governed by the rule of law, putting people first.
