The Alliance for a Happy Home candidacy group, the No.6 on the ballot paper for the 2025 direct legislative election, puts special emphasis on measures promoting the rights and benefits of women, children, and senior citizens.
The group’s political platform calls for the government to increase the birth allowance to 20,000 patacas.
The government has increased the amount of the birth allowance from 5,418 patacas to 6,500 patacas, up 20 percent, earlier this year. The birth allowance is a one-off payment.
The group’s platform also calls for the government’s newly launched childcare allowance to cover children up to the age of six, a change from the current one benefitting children up to the age of three.
The candidacy group calls for the city’s number of days for statutory paid maternity leave in the private sector to be raised to 98 days from the current 70 days.
The group also calls for the city’s number of days for statutory paid paternity leave in the private sector to be raised to 10 days from the current five days.
The group urges the government to increase the old-age pension and the disability pension, as well as the annual subsidy for senior citizens, but its political platform does not propose how much they should be increased.
The government had increased the amount of both the old-age pension and the disability pension from 3,740 patacas to 3,900 patacas per month earlier this year, with the increases taking effect retroactively from January this year.
The birth allowance, the old-age pension, and the disability pension are paid by the Social Security Fund (FSS).
The government had increased the amount of the annual subsidy for senior citizens from 9,000 patacas to 10,000 patacas, effective from this year.
The annual subsidy for senior citizens is paid by the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS).
The group is one of the six candidacy groups running in the upcoming direct election with polling day on Sunday, September 14.
The Alliance for a Happy Home group has fielded incumbent lawmaker Wong Kit Cheng, 43, as its first-ranked candidate for the 2025 direct election, but sitting legislator Ma Io Fong, who was the group’s second-ranked candidate four years ago, did not seek re-election this time.
Ma first became a legislator in 2021 when he ran in the direct legislative election for the first time.
Instead, the group has fielded Loi I Weng, 39, as its second-ranked candidate for the 2025 direct election.
Wong is a Kiang Wu Hospital nurse by profession, while Loi, a teacher by profession, is the vice-principal of the school run by the influential Macau Women’s General Association (commonly known as Fu Luen in Cantonese).
The electoral group comprises 14 candidates for the direct legislative election this time.
The group is the electoral vehicle of the association, one of the city’s biggest community associations.
Only females are eligible to become Fu Luen members. Some of the Alliance for a Happy Home electoral group’s candidates are not Fu Luen members.
The electoral group’s 14 candidates comprise 10 females and four males.
The group has fielded Wong Su Cheong, 44, as its third-ranked candidate for the 2025 direct election. He is a candidate for the direct legislative election for the first time.
Wong, a trainee lawyer by profession, is a director of Nam Kwong Petroleum & Chemicals and a director of public bus operator TCM, both of which are subsidiaries of Macau-based Nam Kwong (Group) Company Limited, a state-owned enterprise.
Wong Kit Cheng was first elected in the legislature’s direct election in 2013, when she was the second-ranked candidate of the Progress Promotion Union (UPP) list, which then won two seats.
Wong Kit Cheng was re-elected in 2017, when she headed the Alliance for a Happy Home group.
The UPP group had fielded candidates from the Macau General Union of Neighbourhood Associations (commonly known as Kai Fong in Cantonese) and candidates from the Macau Women’s General Association since 2001 – when the Macau Special Administration Region (MSAR) held its first direct legislative election – until 2017 when Kai Fong candidates and Fu Luen candidates ran on two separate groups – the UPP group and the Alliance for a Happy Home group respectively.
The Alliance for a Happy Home group won one seat in the 2017 direct election, while it won two seats in the 2021 direct election.
Loi has been a candidate of the Alliance for a Happy Home group since the 2017 direct election, ranking second and seventh in 2017 and 2021 respectively.
The UPP candidacy group is the No.3 on the ballot paper for the direct legislative election this time.
The Alliance for a Happy Home group’s political platform for the 2025 direct election comprises six major aspects, namely enhancing the rights and benefits of women and children, improving senior citizens’ well-being, supporting youth development and improving the education system, boosting the economy and revitalising businesses in the community, improving residents’ social welfare, and improving community facilities.
Wong Kit Cheng (front, centre), the first-ranked candidate of the Alliance for a Happy Home candidacy group, speaks during a press conference on Sunday last week about the group’s political platform, as the second-ranked candidate Loi I Weng (front, third from left), the third-ranked candidate Wong Su Cheong (front, second from left), as well as Iong Weng Ian (front, second from right), the candidacy group’s official representative, Lau Kam Ling (front, right), the chairwoman of the Macau Women’s General Association, and Tina Ho Teng Iat (front, third from right), the association’s permanent chairwoman, look on. The press conference was held at the association’s headquarters on Rua do Campo. – Photo: Tony Wong
