State secret and CE election laws pass unchallenged

André Cheong

The bills on the state secret and election for the Chief Executive (CE) passed unanimously and unchallenged yesterday in their final reading at the Legislative Assembly.

The two bills passed with minimal commentary from lawmakers, who opted to commend the bills and their anticipated benefits to Macau’s governance.

The first bill relates to the National Security Law, and includes provisions concerning potential state secrets, as well as measures to ensure confidentiality and to establish penalties for potential breaches.

This law will come into effect on June 1 next year and only prompted brief comments on the systems used to classify different levels of confidentiality. Some lawmakers called for clearer disclosure on the symbols used to classify confidential information to avoid confusion.

The Secretary for Administration and Justice, André Cheong, said that such symbols and their meaning will be officially announced via a publication in the government’s official gazette, following further directives from the CE.

He also explained that the legal provisions would govern situations where state secrets were at risk of being exposed due to the person in possession of such secrets being involved in legal procedures.

Also approved in the same plenary session, the CE Election Law will also take effect next year. As intended since its inception the upcoming procedures for the election of a new CE late next year will fall under the new provisions. These revisions aim to ensure a higher degree of patriotism from potential candidates as well as for voting members of the restricted college involved in the election.

Cheong also noted that the primary focus of the revised law is to tighten regulation around the candidate qualifications and legalize the requirements of those aspiring to be in a CE role.

Among the differences to the current law is the establishment that the National Security Commission will be responsible for reviewing all candidates’ qualifications. If, during this review, the Commission identifies evidence of certain facts or behaviors that prove, in the Commission’s opinion, that the candidate is not loyal to the People’s Republic of China and the Macau Special Administrative Region, this candidate will be considered ineligible.

As previously reported, decisions made by the Commission regarding candidate eligibility are not subject to objection or judicial appeal.