Elections in Macau

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{{Politics of Macau}}

Macau elects at the regional level its head of government and legislature. The Legislative Assembly is made up of 33 members, of whom 14 are elected by popular vote under proportional representation, 12 elected from functional constituencies and 7 appointed by the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive of Macau is returned by a 400-member Election Committee on five-year intervals.

Voter registration and candidacy

Natural persons can register as an elector of direct suffrage to the Legislative Assembly if they:

  • have reached 18 years of age;
  • are permanent resident of Macau; and
  • are not declared by Courts as incompetent persons, deprived of political rights or manifestly insane.

Legal persons can nominate at most 22 electors with natural person suffrage to exercise the collective's voting rights for indirect suffrage to the Legislative Assembly and the Election Committee if they:

  • are confirmed to be operating within the specified sector for at least 4 years;
  • have obtained legal personality for at least 7 years; and
  • for the Election Committee elections, are not in office as the Chief Executive, Principal Officials, Judicial Magistrates, Public Ministers and Members of the Election Management Committee.

Natural persons registered as electors can run for elections of direct suffrage and indirect suffrage in the sector they belong to. Electors can also run for the Election Committee if they are not in office as the Chief Executive, Principal Officials, Judicial Magistrates, Public Ministers and Members of the Election Management Committee.

Legislative Assembly elections

Elections were held to return members of the Legislative Assembly since 1976. Members returned from direct suffrage and indirect suffrage have been elected under proportional representation with seats apportioned under the highest averages method using the D'Hondt method. Suffrage was opened to Macau Residents without Portuguese citizenship in 1984.

Compositions of elected seats in the Legislative Assembly are as follows:

class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

!style=width:10em |

!style=width:5em|1976

!style=width:5em|1980

!style=width:5em|1984

!style=width:5em|1988

!style=width:5em|1992

!style=width:5em|1996

!style=width:5em|2001

!style=width:5em|2005

!style=width:5em|2009

!style=width:5em|2013

!style=width:5em|2017

!style=width:5em|2021

Direct Suffrage

| colspan="4" |6

| colspan="2" |8

| 10

| colspan="2" |12

| colspan="3" |14

Indirect Suffrage

| colspan="4" |6

| colspan="2" |8

| colspan="3" |10

| colspan="3" |12

Total number of
elected seats

| colspan="4" |12

| colspan="2" |16

| 20

| colspan="2" |22

| colspan="3" |26

Total seats

| colspan="2" |17

| 19

| 17

| colspan="2" |23

| 27

| colspan="2" |29

| colspan="3" |33

Chief Executive elections

Candidates of the Chief Executive are required to be nominated by at least 50 members of the Election Committee, before he is returned by the Election Committee with an absolute majority. The compositions of electoral colleges returning the Chief Executive are as follows:

class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

!style=width:6em |

!style=width:20em|1999

!style=width:6em|2004

!style=width:6em|2009

!style=width:6em|2014

!style=width:6em|2019

!style=width:6em|2024

Electoral
College

| Selection Committee for Forming the
1st Government of the Macau SAR

| colspan="5" |Election Committee

Size of
electorate

| 200

| colspan="2" |300

| colspan="3" |400

class="wikitable" style="width:56%; text-align:center;"

|+ Composition of the Election Committee (2013-)

style="background:gray; color:white; text-align:center;"

| style="width:15%;"|Sector

| style="width:5%;"| Seats

| style="width:20%;"|Number of Electors{{NoteTag|in the 2019 Chief Executive Election.{{cite web |title=行政長官選舉委員會委員選舉投票情況 |url=https://www.ece.gov.mo/zh_tw/2019_AFL_member.html |website=行政長官選舉 |accessdate=2022-02-17}}}}

style="background:#addee5;" colspan="3"|First Sector
style="text-align:left; "|Industrial, Commercial and Financialstyle="text-align:left; "| 120style="text-align:left; "| 977
style="background:#addee5;" colspan="3"|Second Sector
style="text-align:left; "|Culturalstyle="text-align:left; "| 26style="text-align:left; "| 611
style="text-align:left; "|Educationalstyle="text-align:left; "| 29style="text-align:left; "| 279
style="text-align:left; "|Professionalstyle="text-align:left; "| 43style="text-align:left; "| 695
style="text-align:left; "|Sportsstyle="text-align:left; "| 17style="text-align:left; "| 639
style="text-align:left; "|Second Sector totalstyle="text-align:left; "| 115style="text-align:left; "| 2,224
style="background:#addee5;" colspan="3"|Third Sector
style="text-align:left; "|Labourstyle="text-align:left; "| 59style="text-align:left; "| 1,072
style="text-align:left; "|Social Servicesstyle="text-align:left; "| 50style="text-align:left; "| 1,462
style="text-align:left; "|Religiousstyle="text-align:left; "| 6style="text-align:left; "| Consultation among religious organisations
style="text-align:left; "|Third Sector totalstyle="text-align:left; "| 115style="text-align:left; "| 2,534
style="background:#addee5;" colspan="3"|Fourth Sector
style="text-align:left; "|Representatives of Members of the Legislative Assemblystyle="text-align:left; "| 22style="text-align:left; "| Elected according to rules made by the Legislative Assembly
style="text-align:left; "|Macau Deputies to the National People's Congressstyle="text-align:left; "| 12style="text-align:left; "| Ex officio
style="text-align:left; "|Representatives of Macau Members of the CPPCC National Committeestyle="text-align:left; "| 14style="text-align:left; "| Elected according to rules made by Members
style="text-align:left; "|Representatives of Members of Municipal Organisationsstyle="text-align:left; "| 2style="text-align:left; "| Elected according to rules made by Municipal Organisations
style="text-align:left; "|Fourth Sector totalstyle="text-align:left; "|50

See also

Notes

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References

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