The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election will strictly adhere to the Legislative Assembly Election Law, especially its principle of “patriots governing Macao”, to advance various election-related tasks in a planned manner.
The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election, Mr Seng Ioi Man, met the press today after a meeting with officials of the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC).
The Chief Executive today issued an Executive Order designating 14 September as the day for the eighth Legislative Assembly Election.
Mr Seng stressed that the Electoral Affairs Commission’s aim is to ensure the fairness, justness, and cleanliness of the election environment, and to create optimal conditions for eligible voters to participate actively in the election.
When outlining to the press the required tasks, Mr Seng noted that the Electoral Affairs Commission has been in place for more than two months. During this period, the main focus of work has been to adapt procedures to changes made in the revised Legislative Assembly Election Law, and optimise this year’s election work using as the basis the work in previous elections.
The Electoral Affairs Commission had met with various departments to exchange views on various election tasks. Today’s meeting with the CCAC was the third in relation to those matters. Consensus was reached on steps for preventing and combatting electoral violations and vote-buying. Such steps included setting up a public reporting hotline and an online platform, and establishing an interdepartmental notification mechanism.
Deputy Commissioner of the CCAC, Mr Wong Kim Fong, said that an online electoral complaint platform, jointly established by the Electoral Affairs Commission and the CCAC, has been launched and can be accessed on the CACC’s official website. The 24-hour reporting hotline (+853 2899 7733) will be activated on Tuesday (4 March). If any report or complaint involved the functions of the Electoral Affairs Commission or other public departments, CACC would quickly refer such matters to the relevant departments for follow-up processing.
The CACC has established an election monitoring group to monitor all activities related to the election. The CCAC will not tolerate any vote-buying behaviour. The CACC will carry out a series of publicity activities to deepen the public’s and the community’s understanding of the relevant provisions of the Legislative Assembly Election Law, and to strive to ensure the fairness and integrity of this year’s election.
In addition, to strengthen law enforcement, the Electoral Affairs Commission, the CCAC, the Judiciary Police, and the Public Security Police Force held a combined meeting, achieving consensus on cooperation and division of labour among those entities, as well as arrangements for real-time notification and referral of any cases, said Mr Seng.
He added that the Legislative Assembly Election Law has included the Judiciary Police as an entity responsible for handling minor violations of that law. This would help increase supervision of the election and combat the risk of online election-related violations. The Electoral Affairs Commission has also met with representatives of the Government Printing Bureau, the Environmental Protection Bureau, and the Transport Bureau, to discuss ballot papers and printing of ballots, as well as the implementation of the regulations for the use of campaign vehicles by candidate lists.
The Electoral Affairs Commission today also published 1/CAEAL/2025 Guideline. Mr Seng said this guideline’s optimisation steps were based on the experience of the last election, and were made in the same spirit and concept. The updated guideline also set out a series of standards and regulations for election campaigning, election expenses, neutrality obligations, confidentiality obligations, and voting methods. Mr Seng called on everyone to abide by the guideline, to ensure that the election was conducted legally and smoothly in a fair, just, and clean environment.
Mr Seng went on to say that this guideline was more detailed than previous versions, with some provisions being more explicit, especially in terms of penalties. It lists penalties corresponding to various types of violation, and clearly illustrates which situations would constitute an aggravating factor for the crime of disobedience. In addition, the guideline also cites the relevant provisions of the Legislative Assembly Election Law, making the guideline more straightforward. The guideline, in the official languages Chinese and Portuguese, has been uploaded to the Legislative Assembly election website (www.eal.gov.mo), which has been relaunched today.
Regarding the election procedures, the Electoral Affairs Commission will start providing to the public, from 6 March, the “application forms for the endorsement of a nomination committee”. Interested individuals can either obtain the form in person at the election service counter in the basement of the Public Administration Building, or can download it from the election website. The completed application form must be returned to the Electoral Affairs Commission no later than 6 June, to legitimate the existence of a relevant nominating committee. After confirmation by the Electoral Affairs Commission, a relevant nominating committee will be able to submit a list of candidates to run in the election.
Mr Seng issued a reminder that for the direct election, the new election law clearly stipulated that each voter can only sign to form one nominating committee. If a voter signed to become a member of more than one nominating committee, his or her signature would be considered invalid. This legal amendment addressed the problem of repeated signatures, he added.
In addition, Mr Seng emphasised that the Electoral Affairs Commission places great importance on communication and liaison with the media, and will continue to hold press conferences to outline election arrangements. The Electoral Affairs Commission has also set up a hotline for media inquiries, and welcomes members of the media to call it and maintain contact with the Commission.
When answering reporters’ questions, Mr Seng said the election guideline specified “campaigning” activities. Media reporting on election affairs and campaign activities, based on the principles of objectivity, impartiality and fairness, would not be considered “campaigning”. Media outlets could retain news reports about campaign activities on their websites or on their social media pages even on the day before the election and the election day itself. However, they should avoid giving such reports prominent or eye-catching placement. Such an approach would further demonstrate the fairness of the election, he added.
Mr Seng said any campaigning could only be carried out during the campaign period. Prior to the start of the campaign period, candidates could consider whether to attend activities held by community associations; but such activities must not involve campaigning. If candidates participated in non-campaign welfare activities organised by legal-person entities during the period from the start of the campaign period, up to election day, they must make a prior declaration as required by law, and comply with all relevant legal regulations.
