Voters turned out on a warm, sunny day yesterday to choose a new legislature for the first time since Portugal handed this tiny gambling enclave back to China in 1999.
A total of 159,813 citizens was registered for the election, more than the 116,445 people who were eligible to cast ballots in the nation's most recent poll, which was conducted under Portuguese colonial rule in 1996. Some voters started lining up well before the 9am opening of 19 polling stations at schools and sports halls.
"I'm voting because it is our duty. Now that we've returned to China I think our voices will be stronger in the legislature," said Leong Kam-iok, 68, a housewife.
Only 10 seats out of the 27-member Legislative Assembly will be directly elected by voters choosing from 96 candidates affiliated with 15 political groups. Another 10 seats will be chosen by interest groups and seven will be appointed by Macau's top political leader, Chief Executive Edmund Ho (
In the last election, when Macau was still ruled by Portugal, all of those seven seats went to Portuguese lawmakers, appointed by Portuguese governor General Vasco Rocha Vieira.
Critics said ordinary citizens have little influence over the legislature because most of the seats aren't directly elected and this has contributed toward political apathy in the territory.
The election will be a test for pro-democracy politicians, whose influence in the legislature waned after only one such candidate was voted into the eight directly elected seats in 1996. The rest were split among pro-business and pro-China politicians.
While six pro-democracy parties are fielding 36 candidates in this election, democrats said they fear that only one or two of them will manage to get into the legislature, partly due to what they claim is the rampant problem of vote-buying.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
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