Union for Promoting Progress and Alliance for a Happy Home focus on key social issues and family support

Legislative direct election candidates, the Union for Promoting Progress and Alliance for a Happy Home, unveiled yesterday their election platforms, pledging to address key issues like transportation, healthcare, and education, while advocating for increased birth allowances, expanded childcare subsidies, extended parental leave, and supportive housing policies for families and elderly care.

Two electoral groups held separate press conferences to present their campaign platforms, with lead candidates Leong Hong Sai and Wong Kit Cheng, both incumbent lawmakers, outlining their commitments if elected. Leong emphasized the challenges facing Macau, including transportation, infrastructure, healthcare, and education, particularly focusing on economic diversification, structural unemployment, and population aging.

“As society evolves, challenges become more prominent and public demands more urgent […] We must drive government action to implement effective policies that address people’s livelihood issues and ensure Macau’s economic development benefits all residents,” Leong stated.

According to Leong, his group’s manifesto focuses on advancing the people’s interests, prioritizing enhancements to social services, improving employment opportunities, supporting emerging industries, stabilizing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), addressing housing needs, improving transportation convenience, easing old district redevelopment difficulties, and fostering a better environment.

Wong stated, “The government is undergoing rapid transformation. The economy requires diversified development, families need stable livelihoods, and young people need upward mobility.” She focuses on six key areas, advocating for community economic growth through consumer incentive programs and enhanced support for SMEs to reduce operational costs.

According to Wong, her group aims to foster community development by creating distinctive commercial zones, ensuring economic opportunities reach all areas. She pledged to increase the birth grant to MOP20,000, extend childcare subsidies to age six, extend maternity leave to 90 days and paternity leave to 10 days, boost old-age pensions, disability benefits, and caregiver allowances, and implement housing policies that support families with children or elderly care.

The Union for Promoting Progress has 10 candidate members, while the Alliance for a Happy Home has 14. The candidates represent a diverse range of industries, including banking, aviation, youth entrepreneurship, social services, finance, education, auditing, and law.

The separate press conferences highlighted the distinct electoral platforms of the two groups. The Union for Promoting Progress emphasized its longstanding commitment to improving people’s livelihoods and promoting social stability.

This term, it expanded its candidate team from eight to 10 members, addressing a broader range of social issues and increasing the proportion of professionals in the economic sector to tackle economic and employment challenges. The group noted that its team includes both seasoned candidates and young newcomers, underscoring their dedication to social welfare and community contribution.

In contrast, the Alliance for a Happy Home focused on diverse participation and nurturing young political talent. This year, it formed its candidate list by uniting sectors such as education, commerce, youth, professionals, and social services. Notably, several candidates were born in the 1990s, with the youngest being just 26 years old. This reflects the team’s pragmatic, dedicated, and community-oriented approach to political engagement.

Both groups prioritize livelihood and economic issues, urging the government to effectively address pressing challenges such as employment, housing, transportation, healthcare, education, and urban renewal.

The Union for Promoting Progress specifically calls for accelerated government support for emerging industries, stabilization of SMEs, implementation of four key infrastructure projects, seizing opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, and fostering an inclusive society.

Meanwhile, the Alliance for a Happy Home emphasizes enhancing women’s and children’s rights, elderly care, strengthening youth development and education, increasing investment in educational resources, and revitalizing the community economy.