President of Macau’s Legislative Assembly Ho Iat-seng tipped to be city’s next chief executive and will probably run unopposed
- Ho Iat-seng, a respected business leader, was expected to become chief executive in 2009 but decided to run for the legislature instead
- The new leader will be inaugurated in December, on the 20th anniversary of the former Portuguese enclave’s handover to China
When Macau celebrates the 20th anniversary of its handover from Portuguese to Chinese rule on December 20, its new leader will also be sworn in.
However, unlike a decade ago, when Fernando Chui Sai-on was elected chief executive after serving for 10 years as the city’s minister for social affairs and culture, this time a politician with no government experience could take over the casino hub.
The president of Macau’s legislature, Ho Iat-seng, was expected to be the sole candidate in the city’s leadership election in August, after he announced his intention to run last week.
His resignation from China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), was unanimously approved by the body’s members on Tuesday. He has yet to resign from Macau’s legislature.
Ho comes from a prominent industrial and political family in the special administrative region. His late father, Ho Tin, who hailed from Zhejiang province, was one of Macau’s best-known industrialists and supplied goods to mainland China in the 1960s and 70s.