The Legislative Assembly Election Committee of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) was inaugurated here on Thursday, which will oversee the SAR's upcoming legislative election.

The appointment of the five-member committee was announced last week in the Official Gazette which published a dispatch from the SAR's Chief Executive, Ho Hau Wah. Fong Man Chong, collegiate bench president of the SAR'S Court of First Instance, was appointed president of the committee.

The other members are all senior government officials, including Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau President Raymond Tam Vai-man, Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau Director Jose Chu, Financial Services Bureau Director Lau Ioc Ip, and Government Information Bureau Deputy Director Ho Wai Heng.

Under the SAR's newly revised Legislative Assembly Electoral Law, the election committee and relevant governmental departments are empowered with further-clarified law enforcement rules to fight irregularities and even criminal behaviors that may occur during the election process, Fong Man Chong told the press on the sidelines of the committee's inauguration ceremony on Thursday.

Fong also said that the committee will strengthen its communication with various governmental departments and draw up a more clarified and specific election guide for the candidates to follow as soon as possible.

The SAR's Legislative Assembly is a 29-member body, comprising 12 directly elected seats, 10 indirectly elected seats, which represent functional constituencies, and seven seats by appointments of the chief executive.

It is prescribed by the electoral law that candidates for the legislative election must submit their nominal lists and political platforms to the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau by July 12 at the latest, the 70th day prior to the election date, which was set for September 20 this year.

Source: Xinhua