The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election and the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) held a public session to explain the electoral process, aiming to help those who intend to form a nomination committee and run for election, to gain a deeper understanding of various election matters. This would enable them to exercise correctly their rights and fulfil their obligations under the law throughout the election process.
The session had over 220 participants, and the Electoral Affairs Commission also explained stipulations of the Legislative Assembly Election Law, as well as the candidacy procedures for the 14 September election.
The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Seng Ioi Man, said Legislative Assembly elections, held every four years, are a major political activity that involve direct participation of a broad electorate within the Macao Special Administrative Region. Through the exercise of their rights to run for election and to vote, as granted by law, all participants will collectively contribute to the formation of the new Legislative Assembly.
Currently, the Electoral Affairs Commission was advancing with various election tasks in an orderly manner, confident that all sectors of society would continue to provide support to produce a fair, just, clean, law-abiding, and smoothly-running Legislative Assembly election, said Mr Seng.
The Legislative Assembly Election Law was revised last April, noted Mr Seng. This revision was aimed at further implementing the “patriots governing Macao” principle, and set up mechanisms to ensure the smooth operation of the qualification review process. Also, it strengthened controls against illegal acts and optimised the election procedures. Mr Seng added that the 8th Legislative Assembly Election – the first poll since the revision of the law – was thus of great significance.
Mr Seng also mentioned that individuals intending to form nomination committees can henceforth seek support from voters to form respective committees. The Electoral Affairs Commission issued again a reminder that the new election law clearly stipulated each voter can only offer their signature for formation of a single nomination committee. If a voter offered their signature for the formation of more than one nominating committee, all of his or her acts of signing would be deemed invalid, said Mr Seng.
In order further to ensure the fairness of the election, the new election law revised the start of the non-campaigning period to the day after the closing of the period for submitting candidate lists, which is 27 June. Anyone who conducts campaigning activities in any form – In relation either to that period, the cooling-off period the day before the election, or the election day itself – will be subject to corresponding penalties.
Deputy Commissioner of the Commission Against Corruption, Mr Wong Kim Fong, said the CCAC has commenced a series of monitoring steps as anticipated under the terms of the Legislative Assembly Election Law. These supervisory steps aimed to be pre-emptive against risk of any wrongdoing. If any vote-buying situation were detected, it would not be tolerated and would be severely punished, he said.
Mr Wong explained that vote-buying was not limited to acts of exchanging votes with benefits, or influencing voters’ voting intentions. It included all acts of inducing voters to perform significant actions in the election process – including the current stage of forming nominating committees – via use of benefits. If anyone offered benefits to induce voters to form nomination committees, both the organiser of the activity and the voters who signed the nomination committee form in exchange for benefits, would be guilty of vote-buying. Furthermore, the CCAC would severely punish any acts seeking – through unlawful means such as threats, fraud, work coercion, deception, and violence – to influence voters’ voting behaviour.
During the public session, a representative from the Secretariat of the Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election explained the candidacy procedures for direct and indirect elections, including: the formation of nomination committees; matters to note when submitting the candidate list; documents that must be submitted with the application; the election campaigning guidelines of the Electoral Affairs Commission; upper limits of election expenses; and election-related accounting.
A representative from the Identification Services Bureau outlined the procedures for applying for a certificate of the list of members of the leading organs of legal entities.
A CCAC representative gave a briefing about: the obligations of neutrality and impartiality of public entities and equivalent entities; the definition and related penalties for vote-buying; the responsibilities of civil servants in relation to illegal acts; reporting obligations and methods; and penalties for non-compliance in relation to legal entities and candidates; special cooperation obligations; and the channels for election complaints and reports.
Speaking after the public session, Mr Seng told reporters that anyone who discovered suspected vote-buying or other irregularities should utilise the reporting and complaint mechanism, by providing as much detailed and specific information as possible, including their direct contact information.
This would allow the Electoral Affairs Commission and law enforcement agencies to concentrate their efforts and accurately and effectively follow up and investigate the complaints. Personal information of the complainants would be kept absolutely confidential by the relevant parties. The Electoral Affairs Commission and enforcement agencies would take the complaint cases seriously and follow them up with due diligence, added Mr Seng.
