AP
Some 400 pro-establishment electors are set to approve the sole candidate for Macao’s chief executive job on Sunday, making him the Chinese casino hub ’s first leader born in mainland China.
It’s a break from the longtime practice of choosing locally-born leaders, usually from prominent business families, for the former Portuguese colony.
Nearly the entire election committee — 386 of 400 members — have nominated Sam Hou Fai, the territory’s longtime chief judge, for the Oct. 13 vote.
Local political observers say many Macao residents appear indifferent to Sam’s origins. Some see elections as having little to do with them, since the vast majority of the territory’s 687,000 people cannot vote. Still, it remains to be seen whether the former judge can diversify the gaming-reliant economy, a key goal highlighted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Here’s what you need to know.
Who is Sam Hou Fai?
Sam, 62, was born in neighboring Guangdong province in 1962. He graduated from the prestigious law school of Peking University in Beijing. He also studied the Portuguese language, culture and law at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, and once practiced law in mainland China.
When Macao returned to China’s rule in 1999, Sam was appointed the city’s top judge, a role he served in for nearly 25 years before resigning in August to prepare for the election.
As chief judge, Sam dealt with a number of politically sensitive cases, including rejecting an appeal filed by Au to a police ban on a vigil commemorating China’s bloody 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests. His court also upheld a decision to bar pro-democracy figures from running in the 2021 legislative elections.
Moves to curtail dissent in Macao echoed Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong following huge anti-government protests in 2019. In recent years, the former British colony’s vigil to remember the victims in 1989 has vanished, and an electoral overhaul for the legislature was passed in 2021 that aimed to ensure “patriots” would administer the city.
Read more at. https://cdcgaming.com/at-stake-for-casinos-when-ex-judge-from-mainland-china-takes-macaus-top-job/
