Elections 2021 | CAEAL approves 13 of 16 lists for direct elections, six are under consideration

The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election (CAEAL) has so far analyzed 16 candidate lists submitted for the Legislative Assembly (AL) elections in September.
Of these, 13 have already been approved, while another three have not been approved due to irregularities, the president of CAEAL, Tong Hio Fong, explained yesterday in a media briefing after a meeting of the commission.
According to Tong, two of the lists presented irregularities concerning the number of signatures required (a minimum of 300) and one presented a problem relating to the logo chosen to represent the list.
The president of the CAEAL said that the details will be communicated to these three groups so they can make the necessary corrections in due time.
Besides these 16 lists being analysed during yesterday’s meeting, CAEAL has another six that have not yet been examined in detail.
A final decision on the total number of lists on the ballot for the directly-elected seats of the AL will be known on June 24 at the latest, Tong remarked.
He also revealed that CAEAL has meanwhile received, analyzed and approved five lists to appear on the ballot for indirect election.
Questioned about the number of complaints received about potential irregularities linked to the elections of September 12, Tong said that, so far, CAEAL has only received one complaint related to an activity organized by the Macau Jiangmen Communal Society (MJCS).
Last weekend the association held a promotion, offering supermarket vouchers to the value of 100 patacas, allegedly to celebrate the Centenary of the Communist Party of China.
According to the CAEAL president, this activity was not considered by the commission since “This association is not representing any of lists submitted to the AL elections,” Tong said.
The MJCS is a well-known local association with numerous members in the political and financial establishment of Macau.
Some prominent MJCS members have stood for AL seats since 2009 under the name of Macau-Guangdong Union. Currently, the group holds two directly-elected lawmakers’ seats in the plenary occupied by Mak Soi Kun and Zheng Anting.
When their list was submitted to CAEAL on June 3, the group was represented by lawmaker Zheng Anting and by the president of MJCS, Ian Soi Kun.