On Sunday, October 13th, Macau held its Chief Executive (CE) election, with the only candidate, former President of the Macau Court of Final Appeal, Sam Hou-fai, being elected as the first non-native-born Chief Executive of Macau.
The election committee, consisting of 400 representatives from pro-China groups, was responsible for selecting the candidate, and the public in Macau did not have voting rights. A total of 398 people cast their votes on the day of the election, with Sam Hou-fai receiving 394 votes.
According to Macau election authorities, there were four blank ballots cast, and no invalid votes were recorded. Two committee members were absent.
Sam Hou-fai, aged 62, was born in Zhongshan, Guangdong. He studied law at Peking University in the 1980s, moved to Macau in 1986, went to Portugal in 1990 to study language and law, and returned to Macau in 1993 to work in the judicial and prosecutorial fields. Since the transfer of sovereignty in December 1999, he has served as President of the Macau Court of Final Appeal.
After incumbent CE Ho Iat Seng announced his decision not to seek re-election due to health reasons, Sam Hou-fai resigned from his position as President of the Court of Final Appeal on August 28 to run for the position.
Subsequently, Sam Hou-fai received 386 nominations from the 400 members of the election committee, making him the sole candidate under the “small-circle election” system.
In 2021, when Macau police banned the “June 4” candlelight vigil citing epidemic prevention reasons, Sam Hou-fai, in his capacity as President of the Court of Final Appeal, ruled against the organizers, Macau Democracy Development Association.
Sam Hou-fai has been labeled as a “southerner trained by the Communist Party”, also known as the “Thirteen Taibao” or “Thirteen Guardians”. District Lim Chee Sin, a veteran democrat in Macau and former Legislative Council member, believes that Sam Hou-fai’s election would signify a “Beijing controls Macau” scenario.
Lim Chee Sin told the BBC, “He (Sam Hou-fai) came in the 1980s as a dispatched official, working at the Macau Xinhua News Agency, studying Macau law. He and the batch of ‘Beijing people’ who came at the same time all went to Portugal for training, carrying political missions.”
As this is a “small-circle election” manipulated behind the scenes by the Chinese Communist Party, Macau residents have shown an unusually tepid response to the election.
Many have even expressed a lack of awareness and interest in Sam Hou-fai and the CE election, according to a report by Voice of America (VOA).
Miss Shi, a nurse working in a public institution, said in an interview with VOA that she had no knowledge of the person called Sam Hou-fai. She added that because she didn’t have voting rights, she hardly paid any attention to the election.
She expressed concerns that Sam Hou-fai’s background being from mainland China might lead to “Beijing’s governance over Macau”, potentially impacting local political and cultural aspects.
Settled in Taiwan, Macau media practitioner and former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of “Love Daily News,” Choi Tzu-chao, told Voice of America that the Macau CE election was simply a small-circle election designated by Beijing, leading to a lack of enthusiasm among Macau residents. Moreover, China has been actively promoting national security laws in recent years, further disinclining citizens to comment on political affairs.
Sam Hou-fai is set to officially succeed the current CE, Ho Iat Seng, in December this year, becoming the Chief Executive of Macau.