Kou Meng Pok, who heads the Pearl Horizon Condominium Owners United Association, says his electoral group Pearl Horizon Buyers Rights Defence Union (UPHDD) is running in the September 17 direct legislative election to urge the government to solve the long-running row so that its pre-sale buyers can finally move into their flats.

Kou is the first-ranked candidate of the direct legislative election group (No. 24 on the ballot) while Hong Cheng Tun is the second-ranked candidate. Kou’s list comprises five candidates.

The ill-fated residential construction project has been mothballed since December 2015 when its provisional land concession expired. Hong Kong-based developer Polytec is suing the government over the case. Dozens of pre-sale buyers have held a string of protest rallies and repeatedly petitioned the government over their plight.

The government has repeatedly said that the issue must be solved in strict adherence with the Land Law and that it has to await the outcome of court proceedings on the dispute before it could take any action.

Speaking to The Macau Post Daily earlier this week at the association’s office in Areia Preta, Kou said his association decided to run in the election as after almost two years the dispute has still not been solved.

Kou said that if the government and/or the developer manage to come up with a solution to the dispute acceptable to the pre-sale buyers before polling day, his group would withdraw from the election.

Kou said that even if the government proposes a solution to the dispute during his four-year term as a legislator, provided that he is elected, he would not quit his position in the legislature. He said that as a lawmaker he would continue to keep a close watch to ensure the government and the developer implement the solution and that the project would finally get off the ground.

Asked what he plans to do, if elected, when the new term of the legislature starts next month, Kou said it was too early to say.
Kou said the Pearl Horizon dispute was not only a matter for the 3,020 pre-sale buyers, but also an incident of significance affecting Macau’s civil society.

Kou said he believed that his group has a chance of winning a seat in the legislature as the incident involves more than 10,000 residents – pre-sale buyers and their family members.

The first-ranked candidate of Pearl Horizon Buyers Rights Defence Union (UPHDD), Kou Meng Pok (second from left), and his fellow candidates pose in the office of the Pearl Horizon Condominium Owners United Association in Areia Preta earlier this week. Photo: Tony Wong

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