A judge for 25 years, he is the first leader to hold the position who was born in mainland China and does not belong to local business families. The only candidate, he was chosen yesterday with 394 votes out of 398 by the local electoral committee. Beijing has long called for Macau to develop sectors other than gambling, a challenge that Hou Fai will have to face.
Macau (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The former chief judge of Macau, Sam Hou Fai, was elected the new leader of the city yesterday. The only candidate, the 62-year-old is the first representative of Macau to be born in mainland China, unlike all his predecessors, who came from business families in the former Portuguese colony.
Out of 398 members of the electoral committee, 394 voted for him (4 ballots were invalid), in an election that appears to have been largely driven by Beijing. Before the election, Hou Fai had already won the support of 386 election committee members, including several influential people in the city.
The majority of Macau residents – around 687 thousand people – do not have the right to vote. Unlike Hong Kong, however, the inhabitants of the former colony are more comfortable with Chinese influence on the city, the only one where gambling is legal. Beijing, however, is pushing for Macau to reduce its dependence on this sector, which is why it is seeking to promote tourism, traditional Chinese medicine and financial trade. A choice about which some observers have expressed skepticism, because it will be difficult to give up gambling revenues to support Beijing’s ambitious goals. China would also like Macau to become the trading outpost for exchanges with Portuguese speaking countries.
The choice of a legal figure, rather than an entrepreneurial one, could reduce the influence of business circles on local politics, experts still maintain, after in the past business circles had been accused of collusion with local officials. It remains to be seen whether the former judge will be able to form a government capable of addressing all the issues proposed by Beijing.
Sam Hou Fai, originally from the southern province of Guangdong, worked as a lawyer in mainland China, after graduating from Peking University in Beijing and the University of Coimbra in Portugal. With Macau’s return to Chinese rule in 1999, he was appointed the city’s chief judge, a role he held until August this year, when he resigned to take part in elections.
Over the course of his career he has handled some politically sensitive cases: he rejected an appeal against the ban imposed by the police on commemorating the Tiananmen events and confirmed the decision to prevent pro-democracy personalities from running in the 2021 legislative elections.