The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has chosen June 27 as the date for selecting members of the Election Committee, which will choose the SAR's next chief executive.

The announcement was made in the form of an executive communiqué endorsed by incumbent Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah.

According to the Chief Executive Election Law, which was passed by the Macao Legislative Council earlier this month, the committee will comprise 300 members to represent four mainstream sectors of Macao's society.

The industrial, commercial and financial sector is the biggest, with a total of 100 members.

The second group has 80 members representing four subsectors: culture, with 18 members; education, with 20 members; professionals, with 30 members; and sports, with 12 members.

The third sector comprises 80 members from three subsectors: labor (40 members), social services (34 members) and main religions (6 members).

The fourth sector is made up of Macao's 12 deputies to the National People's Congress, the nation's supreme legislature; 12 representatives from Macao's members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body; and others.

Apart from the fourth sector and the representatives of religious organizations, who are free to choose their own methods of selecting their representatives, the election of the other members of the committee will be based on Macao's traditional system of indirect elections involving representatives of specifically registered community, labor and business associations.

(China Daily April 14, 2004)