Lists 1 and 2 exchange accusations on legislative work

The Macau United Citizens Association (ACUM), also known as List 1 in the upcoming Legislative Assembly (AL) elections, and List 2, New Hope, have had the most heated moments of the electoral campaign so far.

During a debate broadcast by the public broadcaster TDM, the two lists exchanged accusations regarding some of the legislative work and laws recently approved.

On the line were, among other matters, the approval of Law No. 9/2025, which establishes, among other aspects, a regime of additional duties for government officials, namely heads of departments and directors.

In the debate, the groups clashed over the fact that none of them seemed to agree with this regime. They called for higher accountability and a regime of sanctions or harsher penalties for high-ranking officials who are found not to respect the laws or their duties.

Representing List 1, Nick Lei remarked that José Pereira Coutinho (the first candidate of List 2) had the chance to vote against the approval of the current law but did not, having, in fact, voted in favor of the bill.

The Times’ analysis of the records of the debate and voting that led to the bill’s approval shows that it was approved unanimously, with 32 lawmakers voting in favor, except for Article 23, Numbers 2, 3, and 4, which relate to the specific responsibilities of directors and chiefs.

At the time, lawmakers Nick Lei and Ron Lam requested to vote on these numbers separately for not agreeing with the content of the provisions, which state, among other things, that: “2. The supervisory body may issue a written warning to directors and chief personnel when it considers that they are failing to implement government policies, stating the reasons for doing so,” as well as “3. The warning referred to in the previous paragraph shall be attached to the assessment report and performance appraisal form of the directors and chief personnel for the period of work to which it relates.”

In all the remaining aspects of the bill, Pereira Coutinho, Lei, Song Pek Kei (List 1), and Che Sai Wang (List 2) voted in favor.

In the press conference held by List 2 on September 1 to present their political platform, Pereira Coutinho justified his vote, claiming that, in reality, the regime only targets lower-ranked officials, stating that those occupying bureau director posts or above are not likely to be targeted by these provisions, as they are “untouchable.”

Instead, he claimed that the law only creates problems for frontline civil servants, who are always seen as “the weakest link.”

The matter of lawmakers claiming they are against a bill but voting in favor is not new and has had several episodes in the past. The most notable were by former lawmaker Agnes Lam (2017–2021), who, on several occasions, after voting in favor of a bill, issued vote declarations immediately afterward stating she did not agree with it, a fact that potentially led to her loss of credibility among the public.

Another argument that sparked the debate at TDM was related to the lawmakers’ statute amendments, which were finally approved in plenary in July this year.

This bill, sent to the AL to be discussed as a matter of urgency, included not only the expected provisions of the new oath of office, following the amendments to the National Security Law, but also several other provisions that aim to enforce restrictions on the behavior of AL members.

The law also restricts the display of materials considered offensive or provocative and enforces restrictions on lawmakers’ behavior in public and on social media, among other settings.

According to the provisions, lawmakers who are found to be violating these rules can face a seven- to thirty-day suspension penalty.

In the war of words at the TDM debate, the focus was mostly on the section related to the rule that clarifies the lawmakers’ impediment to revealing or publicly discussing matters debated during closed-door meetings, namely at the AL Standing Committees.

Pereira Coutinho accused the candidates of List 1 of defending secrecy instead of transparency in AL activities.

In this case, the bill was passed with 30 votes in favor and two votes against, precisely by Pereira Coutinho and lawmaker Lam.

Election FAQ

Question: How many votes are needed for a group to elect candidates?

Answer: One of the most complex matters regarding the Legislative Assembly (AL) election concerns the election criteria. Understanding how the number of votes cast in favor of each running group translates into a lawmaker seat requires extensive calculations and, most importantly, information on the number of votes cast for each group.

According to Article 17 of the AL Election Law, votes shall be converted into seats according to the following rules:

• The number of votes obtained by each candidate shall be calculated separately;
• The number of votes obtained by each candidate shall be divided successively by 1, 2, 4, 8, and other powers of 2, up to the number of seats to be distributed, with the quotients being ranked in descending order of magnitude in a series of as many terms as there are seats;
• The seats belong to the candidates corresponding to the terms of the series established by the previous rule, with each candidate receiving as many seats as their series terms;
• If there is one mandate to be distributed and the following terms of the series are equal and belong to different candidates, the mandate shall go to the candidate who has not yet obtained any mandate or, if this is not the case, to the candidate who has received the highest number of votes;
• If the number of votes obtained by two or more candidates is tied, the mandate shall be distributed by public lottery.
• In short, to know how many votes are necessary to elect the candidates, we first need to know the total that each group gathered, which is why it is impossible to predict with acceptable accuracy the number of votes needed.

Still, for reference from previous elections: in 2017, Sulu Sou was elected with 9,212 votes, while in 2021, Ron Lam was elected with 8,764.

Also, in 2021, the group headed by José Pereira Coutinho (New Hope) elected two lawmakers with a voting total of 18,232. In the previous election, the group that gathered the most votes (Macau United Citizens Association) elected three candidates after collecting 26,599 votes.

Historically, and as a reference, each group has needed between 8,500 and 9,000 votes to elect each candidate.

Renato Marques