Time to change AL seat-allocation: expert

Portuguese-speaking communities should be given ‘a special status’ with at least one indirectly-elected or appointed representative at the Legislative Assembly, Jorge Godinho wrote

The ongoing political reform consultation should be used as an opportunity to also change the calculation method to turn votes into mandates at the Legislative Assembly (AL), legal expert Jorge Godinho has said.
The current system “obviously punishes most the largest forces, making it extremely difficult [for any bid] to elect a third seat: this has never occurred,” the University of Macau (UM) professor stressed.
The AL elections use a modified D’Hondt method, which “conversely benefits the small associations and makes it impossible for any political force to take a significant number of seats,” he added.
“It is time to change this system and move towards a less distorted and more faithfully proportional system,” the UM Faculty of Law professor wrote in an article titled ‘Political representation in Macau’.

‘It is time to change this system and move towards a less distorted and more faithfully proportional system’

This method has provided an incentive in the last AL elections, held in 2009, to “the artificial division of lists” supported by the New Macau Association, he recalled. In the end the pan-democrats achieved their goal of electing three lawmakers, through two bids.
“This division was the first but if the rules remain as they are it is not going to be the last. It is not desirable, nor is it normal,” Godinho wrote. “The appearance of divided lists is something that Macau people can get used to but it is inherently wrong,” he emphasised.
In addition, “it generates waste, such as duplication of structures, representatives, candidates, election campaigns, documentation and spending,” the expert wrote in an article to be published in Eilo Yu’s book ‘China’s Macao Transformed: Challenge and Development in the 21st Century’.
Last week Lam Heong Sam, vice-president of the Macau Federation of Trade Unions – one of the most prominant local associations –, also called for changes to the calculation method, stressing that it was impossible for any bid to elect a third lawmaker.
But lawyer and lawmaker Leonel Alves warned against a change to the D’Hondt method for allocating seats at the AL. “In theory it’s possible but it’s a decade-long practice and any changes must take into account the possible consequences,” he told Rádio Macau.

‘The standard critique [on indirect election] has to do with the fact that there always appear exactly 10 candidates for 10 positions. This does not contribute to the democratic legitimacy of the Assembly’

Elected majority

The first public consultation sessions focused on the increase to the number of directly and indirectly-elected lawmakers. Godinho believes the number of seats available for direct election should “increase substantially, for example to 18”.
A future AL with 35 members “would have a majority of elected seats,” he stressed. The New Macau Association and lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho have supported this same goal.
“This would represent a small step forward towards democratisation,” Godinho wrote. “On the other hand, it would contribute to improve the functioning of the Assembly,” he added.
The AL “is not a mere ‘rubber stamp’ and has been gradually growing in stature in recent years,” the expert underlined. But in general Macau politics “continues to be very personalized and generally does not revolve around ideas of a political-ideological background,” he wrote.

[More directly-elected lawmakers] would represent a small step forward towards democratisation. On the other hand, it would contribute to improving the functioning of the Assembly’

“The direct elections are dominated primarily by associations characterized mainly by individual personalities or business-corporate figures, and not by a major focus on projects or ideas.”
When it comes to the indirectly-elected lawmakers, “the standard critique has to do with the fact that there always appear exactly 10 candidates for 10 positions,” Godinho wrote. “This does not contribute to the democratic legitimacy of the Assembly.”
He also called for a ban on “the widespread use of regimented private sector workers for election campaigns, particularly for demonstrations or by the obligation to wear garments displaying the name or signs of a certain list in the workplace”.
“It is necessary to put an end to these practices, safeguarding freedom of thought and political choice: employers do not have any rights on the political options for their workers,” the UM professor underscored.

Appointed minorities

So far, few people have called for a decrease in the number of Chief Executive-appointed seats but the UM professor says that “the legal justification” to appoint seven lawmakers “is not stated in the Basic Law and is not entirely clear”.
The Chief Executive should explain his choices, Ho Fun Ngan, from the Women’s Association of Macau, said last week. “We hope the process of the appointed legislators being chosen can be more transparent, so that the public will know the reasons.”

‘The power of appointment of the Chief Executive, if it is to be grounded on a sound political basis, must have to do with enhancing the representativeness of Macau people in the Assembly’

“The ‘technical’ argument states that the appointed members are experts in various fields (law, medicine, architecture and so on) and therefore may be ‘better’ or at least very useful to fill the shortcomings of the elected members,” Godinho wrote.
“However, this is essentially a technocratic view of the function which is at odds with the political nature” of the AL, the professor warned. Macau has “vast financial resources” that allow it to provide technical expertise to lawmakers, he added.
“The power of appointment of the Chief Executive, if it is to be grounded on a sound political basis, must have to do with enhancing the representativeness of Macau people in the Assembly,” the expert said.
“The appointment may be a mechanism to bring to the Assembly various social elements or forces that, for whatever reasons, are not elected and represented,” he wrote. For instance, Godinho believes the Portuguese-speaking communities, including the Macanese people, should be given “a special status”.
“The Lusophone minority, while small, is part of the identity of Macau and strongly contributes to characterize its essence. It is, in this sense, a ‘qualified minority’,” he underscored.
Even though there are two Macanese lawmakers, various attempts by the Portuguese-speaking communities to launch an electoral bid have failed to elect an AL member. The last try, in 2009, mustered less than 1,000 votes.
One alternative would be to create “a Lusophone constituency” as part of the indirect elections. The other would be for the Chief Executive “to appoint one or two Lusophone members on a regular basis, much like the Governor of Macau before 1999 appointed Chinese members,” Godinho wrote.

Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On should not choose appointed lawmakers from ‘a technocratic view which is at odds with the political nature” of the assembly, said Jorge Godinho (File photo: July 26, 2009)