1999 Macanese Chief Executive election

Chief Executive elections were held in Macau on 15 May 1999 to elect the first Chief Executive (CE), the highest office of the Macau Special Administrative Region, before Macau was due to be handed back to China by Portugal. Edmund Ho was elected as the first leader of the Macau SAR. This was the only contested Chief Executive election to date.

1999 Macanese Chief Executive election

15 May 1999

Candidate Edmund Ho Stanley Au Party Independent Independent Alliance Pro-Beijing N/A Electoral vote 163 34 Percentage 82.74% 17.26%

Leader before election Vasco Joaquim Rocha Vieira as Governor of Macau Independent Elected Chief Executive Edmund Ho Independent

Candidates

• Edmund Ho Hau-wah, former member of the Selection Committee of Macau Special Administrative Region Government
• Stanley Au Chong-kit, former member of the Selection Committee of Macau Special Administrative Region Government

Results

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Edmund Ho	Independent	163	82.74
	Stanley Au	Independent	34	17.26
Total			197	100.00
Valid votes			197	98.99
Invalid votes			0	0.00
Blank votes			2	1.01
Total votes			199	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			200	99.50
Source: China.cn

Reactions

Edmund Ho thanked the Selection Committee and Macanese residents for their support after elected as Chief Executive and vowed to uphold "One Country Two Systems" framework. Governor of Macau Vasco Joaquim Rocha Vieira, the then-leader of the city, congratulated Ho's win and promised a smooth handover of sovereignty.

Despite some regarded Au as a democrat challenging the one-man election, Stanley Au was later appointed to the Legislative Assembly by Ho after SAR established, and joined Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 2005. In 2019, Au described his bid, which made the only contested Chief Executive election in Macau as of now, as naïve.