Leung Kuok Chao, who heads an investment consultancy, has announced that he plans to run in the chief executive election slated to take place in August.
Leung told reporters about his plan to run for the city’s top job on the sidelines of a blessing ceremony at Pao Kong Temple – near St Paul’s Ruins – on Friday. He was accompanied by a number of community associations’ representatives at the ceremony.
Leung, 45, said that his purpose to run for chief executive was to reflect residents’ views on issues such as housing and traffic, and also to draw other possible candidates’ attention to the issues.
According to the official election schedule, Macau’s next chief executive is slated to be elected by a 400-member committee in the second half of August at the earliest.
Leung said that he was setting up his election campaign office and that he was confident that he would be able to obtain the sufficient number of nominations from members of the Chief Executive Election Committee. Leung also said that he expected to register his election bid next month.
According to Annex 1 of the Macau Basic Law, a candidate must obtain at least 66 nominations from the 400-member Chief Executive Election Committee.
Leung, born in Macau in May 1974, was the second candidate of an election group – Association for Democracy and Social Wellbeing of Macau (ADBSM) – in the Legislative Assembly (AL) election in 2005. The group, which also ran in 2001 failed to win a seat each time.
Leung said that during his election campaign he would contact different segments of civil society, particularly groups representing young people and the grassroots, with the aim of better understanding their needs.
Legislative Assembly (AL) President Ho Iat Seng, 61, announced his decision to run for chief executive in April. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing passed a decision on April 23 to approve Ho’s request to resign from the nation’s top legislature, which clears the way for Ho’s bid for Macau’s chief executive.
Ho, a veteran businessman and community leader, was first elected as an NPC Standing Committee member in the 4th session of the 9th NPC in 2001. He had been an NPC Standing Committee member ever since – the only one from Macau – until April 23 when his resignation request was approved by the NPC Standing Committee.(Macaunews)
(Photo by Macau daily Times)
