Three schools in the territory have been issuing letters to the parents of their pupils, lobbying for their vote for a particular list in the September 17 Legislative Assembly (AL) election, public broadcaster TDM reported on the weekend.
Citing social media sources, the broadcaster said that the three schools allegedly asked parents to vote for the same list: “Ideal Family Alliance.”
Reportedly, parents were asked to opt in to receive election material from the Ideal Family Alliance list, while students would automatically receive it.
The three schools involved are Pui Va Secondary School, Kao Yip Middle School and Keang Peng School.
Pui Va Secondary School explained the letters to TDM by saying that, as a private school, it is entitled to canvass for a particular candidate or list. It said that it has never coerced parents into voting any particular way and was open to allowing all candidates to present their platform.
This was a defense backed up by authorities in the territory, which said that there was no law preventing private education institutions from participating in the election, including through the use of canvassing for a particular list.
The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau also nodded approval, explaining that such institutions are not bound by election neutrality rules. Nevertheless, they must respect the law on electoral propaganda, which means they must be prepared to accept campaign material from the other lists.
According to TDM, only one list has been able to promote at Pui Va Secondary School.
Meanwhile, the other two education institutions did not immediately comment on the matter.
Macau Daily Times attempted to contact the Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly election to clarify the legality of the practice, but did not receive a reply by press time.
Ideal Family Alliance is List 11 in the AL election, with Wong Kit Cheng and Loi I Weng standing as its first and second candidates respectively.
Similar cases of private and public schools, as well as other institutions, favoring some candidates and barring others have been reported in previous elections.
