Macau re-elects leader

HONG KONG — Macau, the world’s largest gambling hub, yesterday re-elected its leader and sole candidate Fernando Chui, a widely expected result after the pro-China government stifled an unofficial referendum on democracy.

Mr Chui was returned to office by a panel of 400 largely pro-China loyalists in the tiny but wealthy former Portuguese colony. Macau’s leaders have taken a much harder line than in neighbouring Hong Kong, where pro-democracy activists have been struggling for universal suffrage.

The election yesterday coincided with a meeting of China’s Parliament, which ruled to limit elections for Hong Kong’s leader in 2017 to a handful of candidates.

Activists in Macau have made unprecedented moves to have their voices heard, trying to follow in the footsteps of its fellow special administrative region Hong Kong by launching an unofficial democracy poll to coincide with Mr Chui’s re-election.

However, the authorities moved quickly to quell the informal survey on Aug 24, which had asked whether residents had confidence in Mr Chui and whether they supported universal suffrage. Last Monday, the police arrested five people for allegedly breaching privacy laws, charged one of the leaders with aggravated disobedience and shut down the survey’s polling booths.

Despite these 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 returned 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. More than 20,000 people took to the streets in May to protest against perceived inequalities and worsening quality of life.

Mr Chui, who belongs to one of Macau’s most prominent families, starts his new five-year term at a time when gambling revenue growth has fallen to lows not seen since 2009.

“We will review the development of the gaming industry as I said in my campaign pledge,” Mr Chui said in a speech broadcast live on Cable TV after his victory. “We will review it as part of positioning Macau as a world-class leisure centre. The government also cares about the livelihood of people here.” Agencies