The Union for Development (UPD) candidacy group, the No.5 on the ballot paper for the 2025 direct legislative election, puts special emphasis on measures prioritising the hiring of local residents in Macau’s employment market, while also advocating stronger protection of workers’ rights and benefits.
The group is one of the six candidacy groups running in the upcoming direct election with polling day on September 14.
The UPD group has fielded incumbent lawmakers Ella Lei Cheng I, 44, and Leong Sun Iok, 47, as its first and second-ranked candidates for the 2025 direct election. Four years ago, the group won two seats when Lei and Leong were also the first and second-ranked candidates.
The group has fielded Cheng Ka Man, 37, as its third-ranked candidate for the 2025 direct election.
Cheng, a lawyer by profession, stood as a candidate for the direct legislative election for the first time four years ago, when she was the sixth-ranked candidate.
The group comprises 12 candidates for the direct legislative election this time.
The group is the electoral vehicle of the influential Macau Federation of Trade Unions (commonly known as Gung Luen in Cantonese), one of the city’s biggest community associations.
The UPD group has run in the legislature’s direct election since 1992, when Macau was still under temporary Portuguese administration.
The group has won one or two seats in every direct legislative election since it first took part in 1992.
Fernando Chui Sai On, the chief executive of the Macau Special Administration Region (MSAR) between 2009 and 2019, was the second-ranked candidate of the UPD group in 1992 when it won two seats. Chui failed in his re-election bid in 1996 when he stood as the second-ranked candidate. He became the government’s secretary for social affairs and culture on December 20, 1999 when the MSAR was established.
Since 2001 when the MSAR held its first direct legislative election, the UPD group has won two seats every time except in the 2013 direct election when it only won one seat.
Lei first became a lawmaker in 2013 through the indirect election, representing the labour sector, before taking part in the direct election in 2017 when she was the first-ranked candidate of the UPD direct election group. Leong Sun Iok first became a legislator in 2017 when he was the group’s second-ranked candidate. Both were re-elected in 2021.
The UPD group first fielded Leong as a candidate for the 2013 direct election when he was the seventh-ranked candidate.
While the candidacy group’s Portuguese name, União Para O Desenvolvimento, is literally translated as Union for Development, its Chinese name, 同心協進會, directly translated, means One Heart Progress Union.
The UPD group’s political platform for the 2025 direct election comprises six major aspects, namely boosting the economy, promoting employment, safeguarding workers’ rights and benefits, improving residents’ well-being, supporting youth development, and building a better Macau.
In the first aspect laid out in its political platform for the direct election this time, the candidacy group urges the government to vigorously advance its 1+4 appropriate economic diversification plan while also ensuring the healthy development of the city’s gaming industry.
The group calls for the government to roll out measures aiming to encourage visitors to increase their spending while increasing their length of stay.
The group calls for measures to encourage more international enterprises to invest in Macau and establish a presence here.
The group urges the government to roll out fresh measures aiming to revitalise the operations of local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
In the second aspect, the group’s political platform calls for measures to create more job opportunities for local residents while also ensuring the protection of casino workers’ employment.
The group urges the government to accelerate its public infrastructure projects with the aim of creating more jobs while also strengthening the city’s vocational training.
The group calls for the government to roll out special measures aiming to encourage enterprises to prioritise the hiring of local residents, while also urging the government to always rigorously assess employers’ applications for the hiring of non-resident workers (NRWs).
In the third aspect, the group’s political platform calls for the government to improve its mechanism for determining the level of the city’s statutory minimum wage.
The group calls for the strengthening of the city’s occupational health and safety, while also urging the government to roll out measures to encourage more companies to join the city’s central provident fund system.
In the fourth aspect, the group’s political platform calls for improvements in the city’s education system while also strengthening patriotic education for schoolchildren.
The group urges the government to improve its planning of public housing projects while also accelerating urban renewal of the city’s old quarters.
The group urges the government to accelerate its digital transformation in the city’s healthcare services, while also calling for the government to improve the design of the city’s public bus routes.
The group urges the government to continue to improve the business environment for the city’s wet markets while also increasing the number of public parks and community activity centres across the city.
The group also urges the government to strengthen its environmental protection campaign.
In the fifth aspect, the group’s political platform calls for a one-stop system aiming to strengthen support for young local people in their study, employment, business start-ups, and the purchase of their first flats.
The group calls for the government to strengthen patriotic education for young local people, with the aim of enhancing their sense of identify with the “One Country, Two Systems” principle.
The group also calls for measures to broaden young local people’s international perspective.
In the sixth aspect, the group’s political platform urges the government to improve its coordination with the legislature concerning the drafting of new pieces of legislation.
The group also calls for the government to strengthen its law popularisation campaign for residents.
The group urges the government to streamline its business licensing system with the aim of making it easier for businesses to complete the required administrative formalities.
Ella Lei Cheng I (front, third from right), the first-ranked candidate of the Union for Development (UPD) candidacy group, its second-ranked candidate Leong Sun Iok (front, third from left), and its third-ranked candidate Cheng Ka Man (front, second from right), as well as other candidates gesture during a press conference on Monday last week about the group’s political platform, at the headquarters of the Macau Federation of Trade Unions in Patane district. – Photo: UPD
