The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election is stepping up preparations for the start of the electoral campaign period, ensuring the provision of necessary platforms and channels for electoral publicity, in order to guarantee fair campaigning and promotion for all candidate lists.

The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Seng Ioi Man, today gave the information to the press after a work meeting of the Commission.

The Electoral Affairs Commission also finalised, during today’s work meeting, the ballot design for this year’s election. Mr Seng said that blue grid lines used previously – highlighting the stamping boxes on the ballot papers – will be retained, though with increased vertical spacing between candidate list boxes to enhance clarity and reduce the risk of invalid ballots. The designated “check mark” stamp remains the only valid tool for marking ballots: using other instruments will render the ballot invalid.

The campaign period will run from 30 August to 12 September, a total of 14 days, during which candidate lists may conduct promotional activities. Mr Seng noted there is still one more month before the campaign period begins. Candidates are urged to prepare their political platforms and ideas, for promotion to the public during campaign period through fair competition, in order to secure voter support on election day, i.e., 14 September.

To ensure publicity platforms are presented equitably, the Electoral Affairs Commission has been pressing ahead with the following measures:

1) a decision to provide 25 designated street notice boards for candidate lists to display campaign materials;

2) a decision to provide 18 campaign venues, with time slots divided equally among candidate lists through a lottery system;

3) suggestions to the Chief Executive regarding the provision of television and radio airtime on TDM’s Chinese- and Portuguese-language channels, with order of usage to be decided by lottery;

4) the Electoral Affairs Commission will hold a ceremony on the first day of the campaign period, offering a fair promotional platform to all candidate lists;

5) the Electoral Affairs Commission will print summaries of the respective political platforms of the candidate lists for the direct and indirect elections, and have them distributed across Macao for the public to access; and

6) in accordance with the 1/CAEAL/2025 Guideline, each candidate list can use a maximum of eight trucks to deliver promotional messages in audio format, with strict regulations on times of day and volume limits, and with safety inspections by relevant authorities.

Mr Seng issued a reminder that candidate lists should pay close attention the 1/CAEAL/2025 Guideline, issued in March, which outlined campaign regulations and standards.

Regarding the prohibition on campaigning during the ongoing non-campaign period, Mr Seng noted that while some complaints have been registered, there has been overall compliance with the rules. The Electoral Affairs Commission would continue collaborating with law enforcement agencies to monitor adherence to the rules.

He reiterated the importance of strict legal compliance during the period of prohibition on campaigning, urging all parties to uphold electoral integrity and ensure the 8th Legislative Assembly Election proceeds in a lawful, fair, impartial, and clean manner.