2005年澳門立法會選舉展示了澳門人的政治參與愈來愈高。雖然澳門並沒有政黨，在這次選舉中各候選人和社會團體的強力動員，亦展示了政治參與愈來愈有組織性，並有政黨政治發展的趨勢。此外，選民亦開始利用他們的選票去「懲罰」表現不佳的議員。這些都是對澳門民主發展的正面啟示。然而，激烈的選舉亦同時帶來嚴重的金錢政治和選舉違規問題，這些情況為澳門的民主化加添了重大的障礙。

The Macao Legislative Assembly elections in 2005 demonstrated the growing political participation among Macao people. Although there are no political parties in Macao, the strong and well-organized electoral mobilization by candidates and social groups reflected the trend of these social groups evolving into political parties. Moreover, the elections showed that voters tended to use their ballots to penalize legislators whose performance was not satisfactory. These were positive signs of the 2005 elections. Nevertheless, fierce electoral competition intensified money politics as well as other irregularities in the elections. These were significant obstacles to the democratization of Macao.