# 2021 Macanese legislative election

Legislative elections were held in Macau on 12 September 2021. This legislative election will return 33 members of the Legislative Assembly of Macau, with 14 directly elected by all electorates, 12 indirectly elected by special interest groups and 7 appointed by the Chief Executive 15 days after the announcement of the election results.
The voter turnout rate for the 2021 Legislative Assembly direct election stood at 42 per cent after polls closed, the lowest rate reported since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region in 1999.

## Mass disqualification

The Electoral Affairs Commission for this legislative election unprecedentedly disqualified some 21 candidates who intended to contest in the direct elections. As a result of those 21 hopefuls having been barred from running, five candidate lists consequently became unqualified due to the electoral requirement of a minimum of 4 contenders in each list.
All pro-democracy candidates, except José Pereira Coutinho's candidate list, were barred from running in the election. The mass disqualification created shock as Macau has been seen as "obedient" to the Chinese government, while disqualifying election candidates, which had happened in Hong Kong before, was believed to be unlikely in Macau.

## Results

The turnout of the election was only 42.38%, marking the lowest since the 1988 election. The mass disqualification was said to be the reason of residents not voting, but officials claimed the weather and pandemic as main factors instead. The number of invalid and blank ballots broke record, with some writing "trashed election", "democracy", name of disqualified candidate Antonio Ng, or foul languages.
Pro-democracy camp won 2 seats only out of 33, whilst the remaining were under the control of pro-government and pro-Beijing parties and politicians as expected.
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
| | Macau United Citizens Association | 26,599 | 20.14 | 3 | +2 |
| | Union for Development | 23,761 | 17.99 | 2 | 0 |
| | Macau-Guangdong Union | 16,813 | 12.73 | 2 | 0 |
| | Union for Promoting Progress | 15,102 | 11.43 | 2 | +1 |
| | Alliance for a Happy Home | 14,232 | 10.78 | 2 | +1 |
| Pro-Beijing camp | Pro-Beijing camp | 96,507 | 73.07 | 11 | +2 |
| | New Hope | 18,232 | 13.80 | 2 | +1 |
| Pro-democracy camp | Pro-democracy camp | 18,232 | 13.80 | 2 | –2 |
| | Synergy Power | 8,764 | 6.64 | 1 | +1 |
| | Civil Watch | 3,729 | 2.82 | 0 | –1 |
| | Strength of Dialogue | 1,433 | 1.09 | 0 | New |
| | Collective Energy of Macau | 918 | 0.70 | 0 | New |
| | Powers of Political Thought | 834 | 0.63 | 0 | 0 |
| | Ou Mun Kong I | 778 | 0.59 | 0 | 0 |
| | Platform for Young People | 542 | 0.41 | 0 | New |
| | Alliance for the Promotion of the Basic Law of Macao | 334 | 0.25 | 0 | New |
| Unaffiliated | Unaffiliated | 17,332 | 13.12 | 1 | 0 |
| Functional constituencies and appointees ||||||
| Macau Union of Employers Interests | Macau Union of Employers Interests | | | 4 | 0 |
| Macau Union of Professional Interests | Macau Union of Professional Interests | | | 3 | +1 |
| Excellent Culture and Sport Union | Excellent Culture and Sport Union | | | 2 | 0 |
| Federation of Employees Associations | Federation of Employees Associations | | | 2 | 0 |
| Association for the Promotion of Social Services and Education | Association for the Promotion of Social Services and Education | | | 1 | 0 |
| Chief Executive appointees | Chief Executive appointees | | | 7 | 0 |
| Total | Total | 132,071 | 100.00 | 33 | 0 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 132,071 | 96.21 | | |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 2,067 | 1.51 | | |
| Blank votes | Blank votes | 3,141 | 2.29 | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 137,279 | 100.00 | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 323,907 | 42.38 | | |
| Source: Boletim Oficial ||||||