Macau, the world’s largest gambling hub, re-elected its chief executive and sole candidate Fernando Chui (崔世安) on Sunday, a widely expected result after the pro-Beijing government stifled an unofficial referendum on democracy.
Chui was returned to office by a select panel of 400 largely pro-China loyalists in the tiny and wealthy former Portuguese colony. Macau’s leaders have taken a much harder line than in neighboring Hong Kong, where pro-democracy activists have been struggling for universal suffrage.
Activists in Macau have still made unprecedented moves to have their voices heard, trying to follow in Hong Kong’s footsteps by launching an unofficial poll about democracy to coincide with Chui’s re-election.
However, Macau authorities quickly moved to quell the informal survey that asked whether residents have confidence in Chui and whether they support universal suffrage.
Police arrested five people for allegedly breaching privacy laws, before charging one of the suspected leaders of the effort with aggravated disobedience and shutting down polling booths on Monday last week.
Despite those moves, close to 9,000 people had voted in the unofficial referendum by midday yesterday.
While the pro-democracy movement has grown steadily in Hong Kong since the territory was handed back to China in 1997, calls for change in largely apolitical Macau have been slower.
However, residents have become more vocal as Macau’s average per capita income soared above that of Switzerland.
Chui, who belongs to one of Macau’s most prominent families, starts his new five-year term as gambling revenue growth has fallen dramatically to lows not seen since 2009.
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