MOP32 million budgeted for CE election

The government has set aside 32 million patacas for the next Chief Executive election
While the exact figure will be officially announced sometime this week, Song Man Lei, president of the Chief Executive Election Commission, told reporters yesterday that the overall Chief Executive election budget will comprise two parts. One is the election of the Election Commission, while the other is the election of the Chief Executive per se. The latter activity is expected to cost around 14.9 million patacas, a little less than half the total budgeted, and an 8 percent increase on the budget of the last Chief Executive election in 2009. Ms Song told reporters this is a “reasonable” increase, given inflation over the past five years.
The budget for the election of the Chief Executive Electoral Commission rounds up to 17.4 million patacas and, according to Ms Song, voting for the Election Commission is compulsory under this year’s legislation. Since this was not the case during the last election, the budget has been increased for this year’s election, she said.
The election for the Chief Executive Election Commission is slated for June 29, and will be conducted electronically, according to Ms Song, who also said an information session outlining the procedures on this will be held next week.