Macau | Direct election for municipal council members against gov’t authority – legislators

Macau (MNA) – Legislators from the 2nd standing committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) approved on Tuesday the final reading of a bill for setting up a non-political Municipal Institute, with the legislation to be submitted to AL for voting before the legislature breaks on August 15.

The bill proposes that the existing Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) be dissolved and replaced by a new municipal body at the beginning of 2019, with its managing members being appointed by the Chief Executive (CE).

Some members of the committee questioned why the council members of the new municipal body wouldn’t be allowed to be directly elected by residents, with the government and most of the committee members arguing that this would go against the authority of the Macau administration.

The final report on the committee discussions notes that according to article 95 of the Basic Law, municipal bodies are entrusted by the government for serving the population, namely, in the matters of culture, recreation and public health.

The report quotes Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Macau, Zhang Rongshun, who states that a municipal body is under government control and that if its council members were to be elected through direct election “their responsibilities would fall toward their electing citizens and be incompatible with the norm that municipal bodies are entrusted the power by the government to serve the population.”

According to the committee chairman, Chan Chak Mo, legislators believe that if a direct election was to be allowed the municipal body would become a representative body similar to the AL.

The committee report further states that the Macau SAR Government proposed that in order for the future municipal body’s objectives to follow society’s demands, its system for gathering public opinions should be reinforced.

Members of the committee also proposed to the government that if a permanent resident with “adequate” professional training desires to become a council member in the new body, he or she can recommend himself or herself for the position.

The government said it would be open to such option and stated that after the new body is created it would disclose the requirements for self-recommendation to become a council member. The CE would still have the final decision as to whether that person were to be appointed, although no information was provided on whether and what would be the percentage of council members to be self-recommended.

Chan noted additionally that the government intends to develop legislation to regulate the procedures in which residents could recommend themselves for positions not just in this future municipal body but in other public departments, although no deadline for initiating this piece of legislation has been provided.