2021 Macanese legislative election

Legislative elections were held in Macau on 12 September 2021. This legislative election will return 33 members of the Legislative Assembly of Macau, with 14 directly elected by all electorates, 12 indirectly elected by special interest groups and 7 appointed by the Chief Executive 15 days after the announcement of the election results.

2021 Macanese legislative election
Macau
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14 of the 33 seats in the Legislative Assembly
Turnout42.38% (Decrease14.84 pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats /–
Pro-Beijing parties
ACUM Si Ka Lon 20.14 3 2
UPD Ho Sut Heng 17.99 2 0
UGM Ian Soi Kun 12.73 2 0
UNIPRO Leong Hong Sai 11.43 2 1
AGMM Wong Kit Cheng 10.78 2 1
Pro-democracy parties
NE José Pereira Coutinho 13.80 2 1
Unaffiliated parties
Sinergia Ron Lam U tou 6.64 1 1
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
President before President after
Ko Hoi In
OMKC
Ko Hoi In
OMKC

The voter turnout rate for the 2021 Legislative Assembly direct election stood at 42 per cent after polls closed, the lowest rate reported since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region in 1999.[1]

Mass disqualification

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The Electoral Affairs Commission for this legislative election unprecedentedly disqualified some 21 candidates who intended to contest in the direct elections. As a result of those 21 hopefuls having been barred from running, five candidate lists consequently became unqualified due to the electoral requirement of a minimum of 4 contenders in each list.[2][3]

All pro-democracy candidates, except José Pereira Coutinho's candidate list,[4] were barred from running in the election. The mass disqualification created shock as Macau has been seen as "obedient" to the Chinese government, while disqualifying election candidates, which had happened in Hong Kong before, was believed to be unlikely in Macau.[5]

Results

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The turnout of the election was only 42.38%, marking the lowest since the 1988 election. The mass disqualification was said to be the reason of residents not voting, but officials claimed the weather and pandemic as main factors instead.[6] The number of invalid and blank ballots broke record, with some writing "trashed election", "democracy", name of disqualified candidate Antonio Ng, or foul languages.[7]

Pro-democracy camp won 2 seats only out of 33, whilst the remaining were under the control of pro-government and pro-Beijing parties and politicians as expected.

PartyVotes%Seats /–
Macau United Citizens Association26,59920.143 2
Union for Development23,76117.9920
Macau-Guangdong Union16,81312.7320
Union for Promoting Progress15,10211.432 1
Alliance for a Happy Home14,23210.782 1
Pro-Beijing camp96,50773.0711 2
New Hope18,23213.802 1
Pro-democracy camp18,23213.802–2
Synergy Power8,7646.641 1
Civil Watch3,7292.820–1
Strength of Dialogue1,4331.090New
Collective Energy of Macau9180.700New
Powers of Political Thought8340.6300
Ou Mun Kong I7780.5900
Platform for Young People5420.410New
Alliance for the Promotion of the Basic Law of Macao3340.250New
Unaffiliated17,33213.1210
Functional constituencies and appointees
Macau Union of Employers Interests40
Macau Union of Professional Interests3 1
Excellent Culture and Sport Union20
Federation of Employees Associations20
Association for the Promotion of Social Services and Education10
Chief Executive appointees70
Total132,071100.00330
Valid votes132,07196.21
Invalid votes2,0671.51
Blank votes3,1412.29
Total votes137,279100.00
Registered voters/turnout323,90742.38
Source: Boletim Oficial

References

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  1. ^ "2021 Legislative Assembly election with lowest voter turnout in SAR history". Macau Business. 2021-09-12. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  2. ^ "Macau poll candidate numbers slashed by 31 to 128". The Standard. 14 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  3. ^ "In first for Macau, election chiefs disqualify 21 opposition members from running in September legislative elections". South China Morning Post. 10 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  4. ^ "為何無份被DQ? 高天賜︰要問返選管會". 論盡媒體 AllAboutMacau Media. 2021-08-18. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
  5. ^ "澳門立法會候選人遭集體DQ 「愛國愛澳」面臨重新定義". BBC News 中文 (in Traditional Chinese). 2021-07-14. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
  6. ^ "澳門選舉沒有民主派,支持者們的零選擇投票日" [Macanese election without democrats; a no-choice polling day for the supporters]. The Initium. 12 September 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-13.
  7. ^ "澳門立會選舉廢票 2082 張 有選民寫「垃圾選舉」「謝主隆恩」 港澳辦:選舉延續愛國愛澳光榮傳統". Stand News. Archived from the original on 2021-12-25. Retrieved 2021-09-13.