Macau (MNA) – The Secretary was responding to directly elected legislator Au Kam San in today’s policy address debate at the Legislative Assembly (AL).
The legislator criticised the absence of any mention of the increase in the number of directly elected legislators or changes towards universal suffrage in this year’s Chief Executive (CE) Policy Address.
Political reforms made in 2012 led to the Electoral Law being amended, with the number of members of the electoral college that elects the CE increased to 400, and an increase in the number of directly and indirectly elected legislators to 14 and 12, respectively.
“In 2012 we made a step for government review, but its time in application is still short. Too many government changes are not positive to the local economy, we need to assess what changes we can make and only after that can we think of the next step,” the Secretary stated.
Since the political changes were affected, Macau has held two AL elections, in 2013 and 2017, and one CE election in 2014.
In 2014, Macau suffered its first drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in real terms since 1999, with a 0.4 per cent yearly drop to MOP443.3 billion, mainly due to a decline in gross gaming revenues.
“The Secretary always uses this rhetoric, but from 2001 until 2009 electoral administration changes were also made and the economy wasn’t affected. Your speech is always the same and it has no grounds. So we’ll have to wait for five more years for another reform?” legislator Au Kam San questioned.
The legislator also criticised the government’s proposal that the Chief Executive should appoint the council members of the new Municipal Institute – which will replace the current Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) by 2019 – since those members will have the power to appoint two members of the CE election electoral college.
“So the CE nominates the members and they then nominate the CE? This is against political ethics, this restructuring of municipal bodies should be debated in the AL,” the legislator added.
