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Please be noted that updates will be suspended until 4 October for vacation.

A reexamination of nullified votes and a recount of those that were reclassified as valid has been completed by the General Audit Commission of the Legislative Assembly Elections, and the final results were thus published by the Electoral Affairs Commission as follows:

Earlier in the afternoon, Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah (何厚鏵) refused to comment on the significant number of nullified returns during the election, while the Secretary for the Administration and Justice, Florinda Chan, said that the decision made by the General Audit Commission should be respected.

Final results of the Legislative Assembly poll have almost been confirmed, as recount has reached nearly 80%. (more…)

More than 86% of Legislative Assembly election returns that were once declared null became valid again, as criteria for null were adjusted by judges. (more…)

Macau’s casino junket commission rate is officially set at 1.25%, in a Dispatch issued by the Secretary for the Economy and Finance. (more…)

There are also 6,539 returns that were classfied null. The Electoral Affairs Commission will convene at 11:00 this morning (21 September) to decide a unified criteria on such classification.

The Electoral Affairs Commission website so far only shows the returns of the contending lists, but the quotient on the number of returns each candidate in the lists has won is yet unavailable. The numbers above are based on the returns of the respective lists.

Updates will no longer be provided. Polling results will be published as a normal blog entry tomorrow (21 September).

• All polling stations are now closed, as counting of turnouts begins straight away after final comers have completed casting their ballots. Final results are expected by 02:00 at the earliest.
• Server system at the polling station at Salesian Institute experienced breakdown for two times, one of which had made the President of Legislative Assembly, Susana Chou, not being able to vote immediately. The breakdown had been recovered, and the Electoral Affairs Commission promised to monitor closely the computer systems at polling stations. At least three polling stations had experienced computer problems so far, including Salesian Institute, Don Bosco (Yuet Wah) Primary School and Neighbourhood School at Patane.
• A voter complained that a CCTV camera was not covered at the hall of the polling station located at the Primary School Attached to Hou Kong Middle School. The camera was later covered by polling station staff.
• Commissioner of the Unitary Police Services, José Porença Ló Branco, said that the police had received a number of reports on minor irregularities during the voting day. Details will be published in an appropriate time.
• A ‘show’ was reportedly held at Alegria Theatre this morning by an organisation, but journalists were refused entry. TDM’s Chinese TV network reported that speculators had to show their ID cards for registration at first, but the measure was later cancelled, when whoever has a ticket could go in.
• At least three institutions conduct exit poll surveys during the day, including the University of Hong Kong, the University of Macau and an association called ‘Macau Academy for Social Policy Studies’. The ‘questionnaire’ drafted by the Academy concerned only has three questions, without asking any further particulars of the respondents. The questions asked are: whether the respondent has voted, which list he has voted for, and what criteria he takes account of when voting for a list. A similar survey had been conducted by that Academy a week ago.
• TDM also conducts an exit poll survey, in collaboration with the Macau University of Science and Technology.
• The total number of registered voters who voted today had exceeded that in 2005 by 19:00. By then 2,595 more people voted. A summary of turnout is as follows:

Macau Government confirms that arrangements to allow overage children from mainland China to ‘reunite’ with parents in Macau will take place from early December. (more…)

A summary of election campaign events on 17 September: (more…)

A summary of election campaign events on 16 September: (more…)