Election watchdog finds irregularities with nomination committees

Tong Hio Fong (center)

The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election (CAEAL) announced yesterday that it has received three applications for legal status from nomination committees and consequently found two cases of individuals signing the nomination papers of more than one nomination committee.

The CAEAL chairman, Tong Hio Fong, said that the Public Security Police Force will be notified of the two cases for further investigation. Voters who endorse the nomination of several candidates may face fines.

The duplicated nominations will be excluded from the nomination committees concerned, Tong told reporters after yesterday’s commission meeting.

During yesterday’s meeting, the commission made a final decision to operate polling stations at 35 venues, with one of the venues containing two polling stations, thus making available a total of 36 for this year’s direct elections to the Legislative Assembly.

There will be five more stations for September’s election than the number of polling stations in 2013. Following the increase in the number of polling stations, each station is expected to serve approximately 11,000 voters, compared to 14,000 voters per polling station at the previous election, said Tong.

The CAEAL also disclosed that the commission plans to hold a meeting with representatives of Macau gaming concessionaires and sub-concessionaires, to explain the Legislative Assembly Election Law and electoral rules applied to gaming operators.