The two-week official election campaign period for the 2025 direct and indirect Legislative Assembly (AL) elections has started, where a total of 71 candidates fielded by six direct election candidacy groups are now vying for the 14 directly-elected seats at stake, equivalent to 5.1 candidates per seat up for grabs.
Each direct election group must field at least four and no more than 14 candidates.
There are a total of 14 candidates vying for the 12 indirectly-elected seats at stake as two indirect election candidacy groups comprising four candidates are competing for the labour sector’s two seats, while only one candidacy group is running for each of all other sectors.
In the run-up to polling day on September 14, the ongoing 14-day official election campaign period, which started at 00:00 on Saturday, is running until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, September 12. No electioneering is allowed on the eve of polling day and on polling day.
Macau’s legislative elections are based on the proportional representation system. There are no political parties in Macau. Customarily, community organisations set up ad hoc candidacy groups in the run-up to the elections that are held every four years.
The 33-member Legislative Assembly (AL) currently comprises 14 deputies directly elected by universal suffrage, 12 deputies indirectly elected by association representatives and seven deputies appointed by the chief executive after the direct and indirect elections.
The legislature’s 12 indirectly-elected seats comprise four seats representing the city’s industrial, commercial and financial sector, three seats from the professional sector, two seats from the labour sector, two seats from the cultural and sports sector, and one seat from the social services and educational sector.
The new, eighth term of the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) Legislative Assembly will start on October 16.
Initially, eight candidacy groups had submitted their respective lists of candidates and political platforms for the 2025 direct legislative election, but only six of them were finally accepted to run after the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) decided in July to disqualify all candidates fielded by two candidacy groups, based on the conclusion by the MSAR’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security that all of them had not upheld the MSAR Basic Law or had been disloyal to the MSAR.
The number of candidacy groups running in the 2025 direct election will be the smallest since the first direct legislative election was held in 2001 after the establishment of the MSAR on December 20, 1999.
The number of candidacy groups running in the direct election was 15 in 2001, 18 in 2005, 16 in 2009, 20 in 2013, 24 in 2017, and 14 in 2021.
None of the six candidacy groups currently vying for the 14 directly-elected seats at stake is running in the direct legislative election for the first time.
For the 2025 indirect legislative election, the labour sector is the only sector where more than one group is running.
The number of candidates fielded by each indirect election group must be the same as the respective sector’s number of seats.
Consequently, while the four candidates from the two groups for the labour sector are competing for the sector’s two indirectly-elected seats, all candidates of the other four sectors’ electoral groups are slated to be elected uncontested.
The government has set up campaign poster boards at 25 public venues, including Praça do Tap Seac, for candidacy groups to display their respective campaign posters during the ongoing electioneering period.
The order on the ballot papers for the upcoming direct legislative election is: 1) Macau United Citizens Association (ACUM), 2) New Hope, 3) Progress Promotion Union (UPP), 4) Macau-Guangdong Union (UMG), 5) Union for Development (UPD), and 6) Alliance for a Happy Home.
Candidates of three of the six direct election groups, namely New Hope, Macau-Guangdong Union, and Alliance for a Happy Home, pasted their respective campaign posters on the board provided by the government in Praça do Tap Seac when the election campaign period started at 00:00 on Saturday, while the other three direct election groups sent their respective campaign workers to Praça do Tap Seac to paste campaign posters there at that time.
Instead, candidates of the other three direct election groups, namely Macau United Citizens Association, Progress Promotion Union, and Union for Development, chose to paste their respective campaign posters on a board in Iao Hon Market Park, a board in Praça dos Lótus in Ilha Verde district, and a board near the Barrier Gate checkpoint respectively right after the election campaign period started at 00:00 on Saturday.
Candidates of the indirect election groups running for the industrial, commercial and financial sector, the professional sector, the labour sector, and the cultural and sports sector also pasted their respective campaign posters on the board in Praça do Tap Seac when the election campaign period started at 00:00 on Saturday, while the sole candidate running for the social services and educational sector, sitting lawmaker Alan Ho Ion Sang, chose to paste his campaign poster on the board in Praça dos Lótus in Ilha Verde at that time.
During the ongoing election campaign period, the six direct election groups are now organising and holding various types of activities aiming to draw support from voters, by delivering their respective political platforms and pledging their commitment to the legislature’s work.
Meanwhile, the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission held a ceremony in Praça do Tap Seac on Saturday morning marking the official start of the election campaign period.
Candidates or representatives of direct and indirect election groups paste their campaign posters on a board in Praça do Tap Seac at around 00:00 on Saturday when the 14-day election campaign period started. – Photo: MPDG
Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) President Seng Ioi Man (4th from left) and his fellow commission members, as well as Commissioner Against Corruption Ao Ieong Seong (4th from right) and Post and Telecommunications Bureau (CTT) Director Derby Lau Wai Meng (left) symbolically launch the election campaign period for the upcoming direct and indirect legislative elections, during a ceremony in Praça do Tap Seac on Saturday morning. – Photo: Tony Wong
