Being the preliminary phase of the upcoming Chief Executive (CE) election of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), the candidacy registration for the membership of the CE Election Committee started on Tuesday.

The deadline for the registration of the CE election committee membership ends in March 17, and only local residents who have been registered as voters and listed on the voter rolls are qualified to be nominated as candidates, according to a statement released on Tuesday by the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP).

Under the SAR's relevant laws, the SAR's third chief executive will be elected by a 300-member election committee, which will take place later this year. The election of the CE election committee members was scheduled to be held in April 26, according to the SAFP.

Among the 300 committee members, 254 will be elected by representatives of the respective socio-economic sectors, such as manufacturing, commerce, finance, culture, education, professions, labor and social services, and 34 others will be picked from local eminent political, business and religious figures.

It is also prescribed by the law that a candidate for the committee must be nominated by at least 20 percent of the registered legal person voters, mainly local civil groups and organizations, in his or her socio-economic sector, and there were a total of 621 legal person voters had appointed their representatives for the nomination by Tuesday, according to the SAFP.

The SAFP also said that a growth of 23.21 percent were recorded in the number of legal persons that intend to exercise their nomination rights, compared with that of 2004 when the election of the second Chief Executive was held.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2009)