CAEAL bids for safer and cheaper legislative elections

The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election (CAEAL) is aiming for safer and cheaper elections this year, the president of the CAEAL, Tong Hio Fong, told the media yesterday after the first meeting of the commission to plan for the elections that will take place later this year.
For Tong, the biggest challenge of this year’s elections for the Legislative Assembly (AL) is related to the Covid-19 pandemic and its evolution over time. On this topic, the president said that CAEAL is preparing, in collaboration with the health authorities, suitable contingency plans, taking into account different scenarios.
“We had a meeting with the Health Bureau to exchange opinions on the matter and to hear their opinions. [For the time being] if the situation of the pandemic remains stable, we will just continue to enforce the same prevention and control measures that are already in force, such as the [requirement] for the use of facemasks, body temperature checks, and use of hand sanitizer,” Tong said.
The same official also noted that, for the time being, it is difficult to predict the development of the pandemic and what the situation will be like in the second half of the year, which is when the election campaign and voting day will take place.

Elections budget sees 8.5% cut

Another of the concerns of the CAEAL this year is the containment of expenses as much as possible, following the indication of the Chief Executive (CE).
In June last year, Ho Iat Seng has ordered the local government to cut expenditure this year. The 2021 budget cut is the consequence of the impact of Covid-19.
Therefore, Tong has announced that the general budget for the 2021 AL Elections will suffer a cut of about 8.5% to a total of MOP50.8 million.
“We want to save as much as possible and so we tried to cut on all unnecessary tasks as well as in equipment and resources. In this area, we are focusing on refurbishing equipment [acquired for the previous elections in 2017] that we can reuse so we don’t need to buy a new one,” the president said, explaining that among such equipment are computers and other electronic devices that are still in a condition to be reused, noting that the budget cut was essentially done through this reuse of equipment.

Campaign with less noise and more safety
An election campaign with added safety and that is more environmentally friendly is part of the goals of CAEAL for this year.
As the president revealed yesterday, the commission has met with both the Environmental Protection Bureau and the Transport Bureau to hear their opinions on road and traffic safety as well as excessive noise and other pollution caused by campaigns.
“In the meetings [with the two bureaus] we have discussed issues, namely those that occurred in previous elections and related with the vehicles used in the campaign. Our main point concerning environmental protection is related to noise pollution, as well as the safety of the equipment installed in the vehicles. We know that candidates usually install large speakers and other sound equipment in the vehicles and we do not want them to jeopardize the safety of other users of the road as well as disturb the population with excessive noise,” Tong remarked.

Joint forces for ‘clean’ elections
Regarding illegal acts and unlawful actions during the campaign or on the election day, the CAEAL said that it will continue to count on the support of the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) as well as the police forces to ensure that no illegality or unlawful acts take place unpunished.
Refusing to comment on recent cases of former candidates, which were sentenced in connection to the election campaign of 2017, Tong said that the cooperation of the CCAC and police forces has been positively contributing to the fairness of elections, adding that the CCAC is currently studying the topic of the candidates or lists that offer meals to voters on election day.