The eligibility of all the 300 members of Macao Special Administrative Region's (SAR) Chief Executive (CE) Election Committee have been officially confirmed, the name list of which was made public on Monday.

By law, Macao's new chief executive will be elected within the 300-member CE Election Committee, the tenure of which is five years, starting from May 4 when the members' name list is published on the SAR's Official Gazette and their memberships become effective, according to a press release from the CE Electoral Affairs Committee, which oversees the CE election.

The 300 committee members comprise of 254 representatives from seven local socio-economic sectors, who automatically elected due to the lack of contests, and the rest includes the SAR's 12 deputies to the National People's Congress, 16 representatives from the SAR's 29-member Legislative Assembly, 12 representative from Macao's 34 deputies to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and six religious representatives.

Previously, the incumbent CE Ho Hau Wah has told local media that the date of the CE election will be announced next month. So far, no eligible local resident has declared his or her candidacy for the SAR's top job.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2009)