A total of 32 candidates running for 30 seats in the professional sector of Macao's Chief Executive Election Committee made their first public presence Sunday.

Each candidate was given five minutes of presentation to representatives from 45 elective societies under the supervision of the Electoral Affairs Committee (EAC).

The first speaker, Van Iat Kio, is director of the Macao Kiang Wu Nursing Institute by profession. She said that the election of Macao's next chief executive is a vital political event that concerns the long-term prosperity and stability of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) as well as the implementation of China's principle of "one country, two systems" in Macao.

Jose Chu, director of the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau, who chairs the EAC, said on Sunday that the election of the Election Committee members will be held on June 27.The result of the votes for each candidate will be published by the EAC on the evening of the same day.

Qualifications of the 32 candidates were confirmed by the EAC in May. They were nominated for the professional sub-sector of the Election Committee. Candidates of the committee are allowed to wage promotion activities before June 25 to sharpen their edge in the election.

According to Macao's Chief Executive Election Law, which was passed by the Macao Legislative Council in April, the Election 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 local legislature, and 12 representatives of Macao's members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Currently only the professional sector has one more candidacy than the number of seats.

There are a total of 2,000 or so such legal associations and organizations in Macao with 500 of them belonging to elective societies. They are highly representative in the city of 451,000 population.

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. Incumbent chief executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah's five-year term will expire on Dec. 19 this year.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2004)