Conservatives secure most seats at AL

Pereira Coutinho (center)

Si Ka Lon was the most voted candidate at yesterday’s low turn-out Legislative Assembly (AL) elections, with a total of 26,593 votes.
Leading the Fujian community in List 3, the Macau United Citizens Association managed to secure two more seats due to the high votes the association received.
List 3 secured AL seats for its second and third candidates Song Pek Kei and Lei Leong Wong with 13,296.5 and 6648.5 votes, respectively,
During the 2017 elections, Si ranked third, only gathering 14,887 votes.
The second candidate that garnered the highest vote was Ella Lei, from List 11, with 23,760 votes, which also secured a seat at the AL for the list’s second candidate, Leong Sun Iok with 11,880 votes.
Both Lei and Leong have been representing the Macau Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM) at the previous AL term.
As part of the platform, Lei has continuously pledged to defend the rights of civil servants and local workers, as well as improving housing policies.
Early this morning, Lei told the Times that they will work as hard in the parliament in the coming term to give better livelihood to residents in Macau.
Moreover, when questioned that professionals in Macau have not obtained as much recognition as they should have, Lei admitted that more work must be done in this respect.

Newly-elected Ron Lam

She wants the government to make concrete policies in nurturing and retaining internationally-accredited professionals in Macau.
In addition, she admitted that adopting international and national professional accreditation standards in many areas should be considered in Macau, given the small size of the city. Accreditations can progress faster, she said.
José Pereira Coutinho came in as a surprise for entering top 3. He also secured a second seat at the AL, allowing the list’s number 2 Che Sai Wang to enter the assembly.
Garnering 18,232 votes, Coutinho is the only one left in the pan-democratic wing following the disqualification of former pro-democrats Ng Kuok Cheong and Sulu Sou.
Meanwhile, Zheng Anting from the Macao-Guangdong Union won 16,808 votes.
In the last AL election, the union was led by former legislator Mak Soi Kun, who had the highest number of votes with 17,207.
However, earlier, Mak surprisingly announced that he will not be running to give way to the younger candidates.

Ella Lei with supporters

The union, List 1, also secured a second seat for Lo Choi In with 8,404 votes.
To represent the General Union of Neighborhood Associations of Macao (UGAMM), candidate Leong Hong Sai and Ngan Iek Hang both secured a seat.
UGAMM now has three seats at the AL as former number 1 candidate for the list, Ho Ion Sang, was indirectly-elected in this election.
Wong Kit Cheng and Ma Io Fong from List 11 were also elected with 14,232 and 7116 votes.
Alliance for a Happy Home’s first-ranked candidate is a senior board member of the Macao Women’s General Association – one of the city’s biggest community associations.
The list aims to focus on safeguarding the rights and benefits of women and children and campaigning for family-friendly workplace policies.
Another new face in the assembly is Ron Lam, who secured a seat with 8,763 votes.
Early this morning at his office, he reviewed that in the past four years, even without being elected, the group has done a lot of work, which he sees as receiving approval from the general public.
With the chance of working in the parliament, he believes the group will have a larger stage on which to work. However, it will mean greater expectations from the general public. As such, the group will carry on with its effort used outside the parliament to serve the public in it.
This year’s elections saw a total of 132,056 valid votes, 3,141 blank ballots and 2,082 void ones. Lynzy Valles & Anthony Lam