Macau Chief Executive will not run for new term – HojeMacau

Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng announced today that he will not run for a new term.

“As the health issue has not been fully resolved, for the long-term development of Macau and based on the best interests of the region, I have decided not to run in the election for the sixth Macau Special Administrative Region chief executive,” he said in a statement issued by his social communications office.

In the same statement, Ho Iat Seng thanked “the central government, all sectors of Macau society and the entire people” for their “full trust and firm support” during his five years in office, as well as the “close collaboration and cooperation of all public service workers.”

“I and the fifth government of the Macao Special Administrative Region adhere to the concept of ‘collaborative progress, transformation and innovation’, plan and promote Macao’s diversified development, and strive to create a new environment for Macao’s development. Create new competitive advantages for Macao.”

I will fully support the sixth Chief Executive and the Macao Special Administrative Region Government in governing according to the law and continue to contribute to the cause of the ‘one’ principle: ‘one country, two systems and the development of Macao’, he concluded.

Macau’s former Legislative Assembly President Ho Iat Seng, 67, was the only candidate in the 2019 election, succeeding Chui Sai On, who was unable to apply again after serving two terms.

The businessman first served as a lawmaker in 2009 and was elected as deputy speaker of the Legislative Council in the same year. Four years later, in 2013, Ho Iat Seng was elected chairman of the body.

The Chief Executive election is scheduled to be held on October 13, and the candidates for the leader of the Macao Special Administrative Region government will be announced between August 29 and September 12.

The territory’s leader is elected for a five-year term by the Chief Executive Election Committee (CECE), which includes 400 members from four sectors of society, and is then appointed by China’s central government in a “mini-election” based on the territory’s Constitution, Basic Law and respective electoral laws.