The 2019 Macanese Chief Executive election was held on 25 August 2019 for the 5th term of the

Chief Executive of Macau The Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (; pt, Chefe do Executivo da Região Administrativa Especial de Macau) is the head of government of Macau, a special administrative region of China. The position replaced the ...

(CE), the highest office of the

Macau Special Administrative Region Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a po ...

. Incumbent Chief Executive

Fernando Chui Fernando Chui Sai-on (; born 13 January 1957) is a Macau politician who served as the 2nd Chief Executive of Macau from 2009 to 2019. He served as Secretary for Social and Cultural Affairs from 1999 to 2009. Chui was born in 1957 to local ...

, who was re-elected once already, was not eligible to run for the office under

Macao Basic Law The Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( zh, 中華人民共和國澳門特別行政區基本法, pt, Lei Básica da Região Administrativa Especial de Macau da República Popular da China) is ...

, the mini-constitution of the territory.

Ho Iat-seng Ho Iat-seng (; born 12 June 1957) is a Macanese politician serving as the 3rd and current Chief Executive of Macau since December 2019. Early life Ho studied at , Macau. In 1992, he studied electronic engineering and economics at Zhejiang Uni ...

, former

President of the Legislative Assembly of Macau The President of the Legislative Assembly is the speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Macau The Legislative Assembly of the Macau Special Administrative Region (; ) is the organ of the legislative branch of Macau. It is a 33-member body c ...

, won as the sole candidate of the election.

Background

Election for 399

Election Committee The Election Committee is a Hong Kong electoral college, the function of which is to select the Chief Executive (CE) and, since 2021, to elect 40 of the 90 members of the Legislative Council. Established by Annex I of the Basic Law of Hong ...

members, whose duty is to elect the new Chief Executive, was held on 16 June 2019. On 18 April 2019, the third

announced his bid for CE office and tendered his resignation as the President of AL, Member of AL, Member of the NPCSC, and the 400 members Election Committee for the Chief Executive of Macau which was temporary reduced to 399 members. On 23 April the Chairman of the NPCSC

Li Zhanshu Li Zhanshu (; born August 30, 1950) is a Chinese politician, and the current outgoing chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the Chinese Speaker. He was the third-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committ ...

formally accepted Ho's resignation from the NPCSC. On 5 July 2019, Ho officially resigned from

Legislative Assembly of Macau The Legislative Assembly of the Macau Special Administrative Region (; ) is the organ of the legislative branch of Macau. It is a 33-member body comprising 14 directly elected members, 12 indirectly elected members representing functional co ...

as President and Member of AL. On 23 June 2019, Ho was able to secure 378 electoral colleges becoming the sole candidate for CE, then appointed by

Li Keqiang Li Keqiang (born 1 July 1955) is a Chinese politician who is the outgoing premier of China. An economist by profession, Li is head of China's executive branch as well as one of the leading figures behind China's Financial and Economic Affai ...

, Premier of China.

Candidates

Announced

: Former President of the Legislative Assembly who resigned to contest the election. * 梁國洲: Director of an investment advisor company. * 許榮聰: Former head of 澳門光明報, a local newspaper. * 蔡婷婷. * 李愛慈. * 邵該榮: Honorary Consul of Papua New Guinea to Macau. * 陳榮富: Head of electric machines and air-conditioners engineering company.

Declined

Chan Meng-kam Chan may refer to: Places *Chan (commune), Cambodia * Chan Lake, by Chan Lake Territorial Park in Northwest Territories, Canada People *Chan (surname), romanization of various Chinese surnames (including 陳, 曾, 詹, 戰, and 田) * Chan Cald ...

: Former member of Legislative Assembly, businessman. * Lionel Leon Vai-tac: Secretary of Economy and Finance. * Wong Sio-chak: Secretary for Security of Macau.

Civil vote

Pro-democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a ful ...

political party

New Macau Association The New Macau Association (AMN) is a major pro-democratic political party in the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Macau. The party was established in 1992 and the founding chairman was António Ng Kuok Cheong, who departed from the the ...

virtually held "Civil Vote of CE Under Universal Suffrage" between 11 and 25 August 2019, of which one question regarding political reform was presented: "Do you agree the Chief Executive of Macau Special Administrative Region shall be selected by universal suffrage?". The vote was cut short on 23 August by the Association after the voting website and advertisement booths on street were being attacked. According to the result released, 5,351 voted yes (93.9%), 236 voted no (4.1%), and 111 abstained (2%).

Results

Ho Iat-seng was elected after winning 98% of votes cast. The result was ratified by the Court of Final Appeal. Ho was officially appointed by

Premier of the People's Republic of China The premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, commonly called the premier of China and sometimes also referred to as the prime minister, is the head of government of China and leader of the State Council. The premier is ...

, on 4 September 2019, and took office on 20 December. , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" , Candidates ! style="text-align:left;" , Parties ! width="75" , Votes ! width="30" , % , - , style="background-color:" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:left;" ,

Non-partisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

, , % , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Total ! ! 100% , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Valid votes , , , , % , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Invalid votes , , , , % , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Blank votes , , , , % , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Votes cast / turnout , , , , % , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" , Eligible voters , , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" , , - , colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" , Source
Official results by the General Audit Committee

Controversies

The

pro-democracy camp The pro-democracy camp, also known as the pan-democracy camp, is a political alignment in Hong Kong that supports increased democracy, namely the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council as given by the Basic L ...

voices discontentment over the

uncontested election An uncontested election is an election in which the number of candidates is the same as or fewer than the number of places available for election, so that all candidates are guaranteed to be elected. An uncontested single-winner election is one wh ...

, criticizing it as "one-man election", "sham election", and "small-circle election" as majority of residents cannot nominate and vote in the election.

References

External links

Official website
{{Macanese elections 2019 elections in Asia 2019 in Macau August 2019 events Single-candidate elections Indirect elections