The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has pinpointed the date for selecting members of the Election Committee of Macao's next chief executive on June 27.

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

The second sector has 80 members representing four sub-sectors, namely culture (18 members), education (20 members), professionals (30 members), and sports (12 members).

The third sector comprises 80 members among three sub-sectors, namely labor (40 members), social services (34 members), and six representatives of Macao's four main religions -- Catholicism (2 members), Buddhism (2 members), Protestantism (1 member), and Taoism (1 member).

The fourth sector comprises Macao's 12 deputies to the National People’s Congress (NPC), 16 representatives of the legislative, and 12 representatives of Macao's members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

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

There are a total of 2,000 or so such legal associations and organizations in Macao with 500 of them elective societies. They are highly representative in the city of 448,500 populations.

Under the Election Law, which is closely based on the Macao Basic Law, the election of the chief executive by the Election Committee must be held at least 60 days before the office holder’s term expires. Ho's first five-year term will expire on Dec.19 this year.

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2004)