Commission: Polling stations to be increased by six

The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election (CAEAL) has a preliminary plan to install polling stations at 35 venues, with one of the venues containing two polling stations. This increase will make available a total of 36 polling stations for 2017’s direct election process for the Legislative Assembly.

Compared to the 2013 election, six polling stations and five venues have been added for the upcoming election. The reason for the increase in the number of facilities, according to CAEAL, is the growth in the number of registered voters.

On Monday, CAEAL representatives made a site visit to the new polling venues and to several used in previous elections, in order to evaluate the facilities and arrangements at those places. Venues visited included the Northern District Public Services Centre at Areia Preta, the Macau Forum building and several schools.

According to a CAEAL statement, “major factors considered when selecting a polling venue were: convenience for voters, facility capacity and the safety of the facility.” Another important factor was ease of access for elderly voters and for people with special needs.

The commission also stated that for indirect elections, the Macao Polytechnic Institute will be used as the sole polling venue, hosting a total of five polling stations.

By the deadline for voter registration in December 2016, there were 307,020 people registered to vote, representing a growth of 10.78 percent from the 277,153 registered voters in 2012.

The commission repeated that the distribution of the polling stations is determined according to the voter address given at registration. This location-based system is meant to convince voters who have changed their address to update their personal data through the automatic service kiosks located in several locations of the city.

The primary concern voiced by one of the team members that visited the polling station sites was in regards to the accessibility of the polling stations. The concern centered especially on how they do not, at present, adequately serve the needs of the elderly and people with disabilities.