{"id":20381,"date":"2021-07-16T17:04:05","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T17:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=20381"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:30:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:30:59","slug":"macau-gaming-staff-activist-withdraws-from-legislative-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-gaming-staff-activist-withdraws-from-legislative-election","title":{"rendered":"Macau: gaming staff activist withdraws from legislative election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cloee Chao Sao Fong, a casino labour activist, has been disqualified along with 20 other candidates for not pledging allegiance to the Macau Special Administrative Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- As Macau prepares for the Legislative Assembly election to be held on September 12,\u00a0Macau\u2019s Electoral Affairs Commission<\/strong>\u00a0has\u00a0disqualified 20 candidates.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those who have been disqualified is Cloee Chao Sao Fong<\/a>, a casino labour activist who was the lead candidate for the New Macao Gaming List.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had already presented her group\u2019s political programme and list of candidates to the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission. She has had to withdraw together with the second candidate on her ticket<\/strong>, Jeremy Lei Man Chao.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macau\u2019s Electoral Affairs Commission argued that candidates \u201chad not upheld Macau\u2019s Basic Law and\u00a0had not met the requirement of pledging allegiance to the Macau Special Administrative Region<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloee Chao Sao Fong said she should have been allowed to stand for election<\/strong>\u00a0but due to the current circumstances, her group has decided not to replace any members on the electoral ticket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other three members of the gaming labour group have decided to withdraw<\/strong>, meaning the party no longer meets the minimum requirements to run for the direct election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the elections, twelve seats will be indirectly elected via local functional constituencies and the remaining seven will be appointed by the chief executive after elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela Leong On Kei<\/a>, co-chairman and executive director of Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd<\/strong>, will stand for re-election as a member of Macau\u2019s Legislative Assembly. This time, Leong will be part of the indirect-election portion of the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A public consultation<\/a> on an amendment to Macau\u2019s gaming law is likely to be held after legislative elections as Macau\u2019s current casino licences <\/strong>are due to expire in June 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cloee Chao Sao Fong, a casino labour activist, has been disqualified along with 20 other candidates for not pledging allegiance to the Macau Special Administrative Region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":20382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's Electoral Affairs Commission has disqualified 20 candidates, including prominent casino labour activist Cloee Chao Sao Fong, for failing to pledge allegiance to the Macau Special Administrative Region ahead of the September 12 Legislative Assembly election. This development occurs as Macau prepares for a critical public consultation on amendments to its gaming law, with current casino concessions expiring in June 2022. Concurrently, Angela Leong On Kei, co-chairman of SJM Holdings Ltd, is seeking re-election via the indirect election process.","focusai_entities":"Cloee Chao Sao Fong, Jeremy Lei Man Chao, Angela Leong On Kei, SJM Holdings Ltd, Macau Special Administrative Region, Macau\u2019s Electoral Affairs Commission, New Macao Gaming List, Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission, Legislative Assembly","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact of Disqualifications?","query":"What are the potential implications of these candidate disqualifications on the political stability and the upcoming gaming law amendment process in Macau, particularly concerning labour representation and public sentiment?"},{"label":"Leong's Re-election Impact?","query":"How might Angela Leong On Kei's re-election to the Legislative Assembly, especially through the indirect process, influence the ongoing discussions regarding gaming concession renewals and SJM Holdings Ltd's strategic positioning?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,154],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-20381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20381"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20409,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20381\/revisions\/20409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}