Political screening in Macau Legislative Assembly elections

In late 2016[1], the Macau government introduced an amendment to the Legislative Assembly Electoral Law[2] which authorised the Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) to disqualify candidates who do not “uphold the Basic Law and swear allegiance to the Macau Special Administrative Region[3].” In other words, the Macau government wrote into Macau’s election law the very same mechanism used by the Hong Kong government to screen out the candidates who hold political opinions[4] denounced by the Chinese authorities. Although no candidate was disqualified in the 2017 Legislative Election, there was a complaint to the CAEAL against one candidate[5].

The Macau Research Group and the New Macau Association suggest the UN Human Rights Committee ask Macau, China to clarify, in precise terms, the objective criteria used in the determination of the ineligibility of a candidate on the basis of article 6(8) of law no. 3/2011 as amended by law no. 9/2016.

This article is an excerpt from a human rights report on Macau jointly submitted by the Macau Research Group and the New Macau Association to the UN Human Rights Committee in 2020. See here for the full report.

[1] At a time not soon after first two members of Hong Kong Legislative Council involved in an oath-taking controversy were disqualified from office

[2] Law no. 9/2016 “Amendment to Law no. 3/2001”

[3] Law no. 3/2001, art. 6, 30, 33, 47-A.

[4] e.g. Support for independence or self-determination of the region, or constitutional ideas incompatible with the “One Country Two Systems” principle

[5] “收到1宗投訴參選人不效忠澳門特區 選管會：不能單靠某些人言論或資訊就斷定事實”, Macau Concealers, 14 September 2017, https://mcnews.cc/p/17842.