Sole candidate Wang wins by-election with 813 votes

Members of the Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election inspect the polling station

Wang Sai Man, the sole candidate in the Legislative Assembly indirect constituency’s by-election, received 813 votes from a total of 920 eligible voters in the industrial, commercial and financial sector.

Yesterday’s by-election had a high turnout with only one voting station, located at the Macau Forum. For the morning voting, there was a turnout rate close to 60% in the first three hours of operation, which started at 9 am.

When the polls closed, some 822 votes had been cast, representing a turnout of over 89%. According to the electoral authority, five votes were blank and four were considered invalid.

The 49-year-old candidate is a member of the Executive Council of the Social Coordination Standing Committee. At the same time, he is the vice president of the executive branch of the Industrial Association of Macau, president of the executive branch of the Macau Textile Merchants Association and a member in the Standing Committee of Directors of the Macau Chamber of Commerce.

Incumbent president of the legislature, Kou Hoi In, was among the eligible voters. He expects there will be not much change in the work of the Legislative Assembly, and anticipates working closely with Wang in future.

President of the Macau Chamber of Commerce, Ma Iao Lai, expressed his hope that Wang would enhance communications with the sector. On the other hand, Ma expects that his sector and the labor sector can work harmoniously for the development of Macau, considering the Macau Chamber of Commerce has established a connection with its counterpart sector.

Indirectly elected lawmaker José Chui Sai Peng, who was also voted yesterday, commended the work of the Electoral Affairs Committee. In addition, he also encouraged his new colleague to work together to consolidate the existing achievements and produce new results.

After casting his vote, Wang voiced his pledge to work on issues of all aspects. He also hoped that the government would provide a more advantageous environment for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as resolve challenges in human resources and public administration.

Wang compiled his manifesto into seven points, namely defending the interests of his sector, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises against challenges, invigorating community economy, promoting distinguished financial services, generating synergies for economic development, supervising the government and contributing to the building of a harmonious Macau.

In his manifesto, he elaborated that he would work on diversifying the products offered in Macau by the tourism industry. The cultural values in all districts of the city should be utilized in full to improve the industry’s competitiveness.

Furthermore, he believed further development in the financial industry, with the offering of products with local characteristics, would help Macau upgrade its industry.

He also aligned with Chief Executive-elect Ho Iat Seng’s drive for an improvement in governance efficiency.

The by-election was held to elect a replacement for the seat of Ho Iat Seng. Ho resigned from the legislature to participate in the single-candidate Chief Executive election. Since Ho represented the indirect constituency of industrial, commercial and financial sector, Wang, also a businessperson, was proposed to run for the by-election.

The government has budgeted the by-election spending to be 3 million patacas.