The Macau government will elect 12 deputies to the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, on Dec. 12, according to a decision by the presidium meeting of the Conference for Electing Deputies of the SAR to the 14th NPC on Saturday.
The electoral conference held its first plenary session earlier in the day, which was attended by 469 members. An 11-member presidium including Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng and former top official Ho Hau Wah was elected to preside over the conference according to a method for the Macau SAR to elect deputies to the 14th NPC.
Yang Zhenwu, secretary-general of the NPC Standing Committee who came to Macau to preside over the election work, said that electing NPC deputies in the Macau SAR is a practice of “One country, two systems,” reflecting that “Macau compatriots are the masters of their own affairs,” as cited in a Xinhua report.
Yang stressed the need to perform the duties as enshrined in the Constitution and the Macau SAR Basic Law and to be aware of the bottom line of safeguarding national security.
Efforts should be made to ensure that patriotic deputies, who represent the wide public of Macau and have strong abilities to participate in and deliberate on state affairs, can be elected, Yang added.
At the presidium meeting, Ho Iat Seng was elected standing chairman of the presidium. The presidium decided the nomination of candidates for NPC deputies will run from Nov. 22 to 28. The voting will take place on Dec. 12 at the second plenary session of the electoral conference.
According to the election method, a total of 12 deputies are to be elected in Macau.
Each member of the electoral conference is allowed to nominate no more than 12 candidates. Macau residents with Chinese citizenship aged 18 or above are eligible to contest for the candidacy, and they need to obtain at least 15 nominations from electoral conference members for their registration to be effective. LV/Xinhua
