Macau businessman Leong Kuok Chao has entered the race for chief executive of the self-governing casino enclave, setting up what could be the first disputed election for the post since the territory was returned to China 20 years ago.
If he’s approved by a special electoral commission, Leong, 45, a principal of a local investment consultancy who unsuccessfully sought a seat in Macau’s Legislative Assembly several years back, will run this summer against Assembly President Ho Iat Seng.
The winner will succeed Fernando Chui as the territory’s third chief executive. Chui, the well-connected son of a local construction magnate, is approaching the end of his two-term limit. He ran unopposed both in 2009 and 2014.
Only the first chief executive election, held in 1999 and won by Edmund Ho, saw a competing candidate, a local banker and financier, Stanley Au.
Au has endorsed Ho in the upcoming election.
The chief executive is not chosen by popular vote but selected by the 400-member electoral commission, which is dominated by business and commercial interests and will be careful to make a choice that is acceptable to the central government in Beijing, where Ho has longstanding political ties.
Nonetheless, Leong, whose losing 2005 bid for an Assembly seat was conducted under the banner of a group called the “Macau Association for Democracy and Social Welfare,” said he hopes to gain support from the territory’s residents by focusing on social issues such as housing and transportation.
