Published: 10:24, September 11, 2021 | Updated: 14:47, September 11, 2021
Macao to hold legislative election Sunday
By William Xu

Macao's Legislative Assembly building.  (PHOTO/GOV.MO)

Macao will see 128 candidates from 14 teams contesting 14 of the 33 seats in its Legislative Assembly on Sunday.

Apart from the 14 seats returned by the public on Sunday, 12 seats in the Legislative Assembly will be determined through indirect election by professional sectors and seven seats will be appointed by the Chief Executive of Macao Special Administrative Region Ho Iat-seng. The appointments will be made within 15 days of the election result being announced. 

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In August, the SAR government sent out poll notices to over 320,000 eligible voters registered for the election of the seventh Legislative Assembly. Voters will be informed about their designated polling stations on the election day.

In July, Macao’s Electoral Affairs Commission disqualified 21 candidates from standing for the legislative election for failing to pledge allegiance to the Macao SAR or uphold the region’s Basic Law

According to the city’s electoral system, ballots received by every election team will be allocated proportionally to candidates listed in the group with the first candidate on the list taking all the votes received for the team and the second candidates taking half of the votes and the third taking a quarter of the votes. Each candidate will then be ranked in order of the number of ballots received and the top 14 will win seats. The same ballot-counting method, which is known as the modified d’Hondt method, will be used for the indirect election.

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The city holds its legislative election every four years.

In July, Macao’s Electoral Affairs Commission disqualified 21 candidates from standing for the legislative election for failing to pledge allegiance to the Macao SAR or uphold the region’s Basic Law.

Later, the Macao Court of Final Appeal dismissed appeals filed by some barred candidates and upheld the Electoral Affairs Commission’s decision, limiting the number of hopefuls competing in the direct election to 128.