The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has
chosen June 27 as the date for selecting members of the Election
Committee, which will choose the SAR's next chief executive.
The announcement was made in the form of an executive communiqué
endorsed by incumbent Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah.
According to the Chief Executive Election Law, which was passed
by the Macao Legislative Council earlier this month, the committee
will comprise 300 members to represent four mainstream sectors of
Macao's society.
The industrial, commercial and financial sector is the biggest,
with a total of 100 members.
The second group has 80 members representing four subsectors:
culture, with 18 members; education, with 20 members;
professionals, with 30 members; and sports, with 12 members.
The third sector comprises 80 members from three subsectors:
labor (40 members), social services (34 members) and main religions
(6 members).
The fourth sector is made up of Macao's 12 deputies to the
National People's Congress, the nation's supreme legislature; 12
representatives from Macao's members of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political
advisory body; and others.
Apart from the fourth sector and the representatives of
religious organizations, who are free to choose their own methods
of selecting their representatives, the election of the other
members of the committee will be based on Macao's traditional
system of indirect elections involving representatives of
specifically registered community, labor and business
associations.
(China Daily April 14, 2004)