2021 Macanese legislative election

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.[2][3]

All pro-democracy candidates, except José Pereira Coutinho's candidate list,[4] were barred from running in the election. The mass disqualification created shock as Macau has been seen as "obedient" to the Beijing Government, while disqualifying election candidates, which had happened in Hong Kong before, was believed to be unlikely in Macau.[5]

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.[6] The number of invalid and blank ballots broke record, with some writing "trashed election", "democracy", name of disqualified candidate Antonio Ng, or foul languages.[7]

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.

Summary of the 12 September 2021 Legislative Assembly of Macau election results

№		Political affiliation	Popular votes	% of Votes	Change in % of vote	Seats	Net change in seats
Pro-Beijing camp
3		Macau United Citizens' Association (ACUM)	26,593	20.14	11.52	3	2
11		Union for Development (UPD)	23,760	17.99	8.32	2
1		Macau-Guangdong Union (UMG)	16,808	12.73	2.76	2
8		Progress Promotion Union (UPP)	15,100	11.43	4.28	2	1
9		Alliance for a Happy Home (ABL)	14,232	10.78	5.28	2	1
Pro-democracy camp
14		New Hope (NE)	18,232	13.81	5.48	2	1
Centrists
6		Synergy Power (PS)	8,763	6.64	2.49	1	1
2		Civic Watch (Cívico)	3,729	2.82	2.74	0	1
No legislative representation
7		Força do Diálogo	1433	1.09	N/A	0
5		Energia Colectiva de Macau	918	0.70	N/A	0
12		Powers of Political Thought (PPP)	834	0.63	0.24	0
10		Ou Mun Kong I (OMKI)	778	0.59	0.36	0
4		Plataforma Para os Jovens	542	0.41	N/A	0
13		Aliança Para a Promoção da Lei Básica de Macau	334	0.25	N/A	0
Total and Turnout			137,279	100		14
Valid votes			132,056	96.20
Invalid votes			2,082	1.52
Blank votes			3,141	2.38
Eligible voters			323,907	42.38
Indirectly elected and appointed members
—		Macau Union of Employers Interests (OMKC)	969			4
—		Federation of Employees Associations (CCCAE)	1,074			2
—		Macau Union of Professional Interests (OMCY)	624			3	1
—		Association for Promotion of Social Services and Education (APSSE)	1,775			1
—		Excellent Culture and Sport Union (União Excelente)	2,317			2
—		Members appointed by the Chief Executive				7