HONG KONG: Macau chief executive Fernando Chui is widely expected to be “re-elected” tomorrow after the pro-China government stifled an unofficial referendum on democracy, taking a much harder line on the gambling hub than leaders have in neighbouring Hong Kong.
The election in the tiny but wealthy former Portuguese-run enclave, by a select panel of 400 largely pro-China loyalists with Chui the only candidate, echoes the struggle in Hong Kong, where activists have been pushing for universal suffrage since China reclaimed the British colony in 1997.
Both territories are now “special administrative regions” of China, enjoying wide-ranging freedoms unavailable on the mainland, but presenting Communist Party leaders in Beijing with a headache as calls for democracy grow. China is terrified those calls will spread to mainland cities, threatening the party’s grip on power.
Eric Sautede, a former professor of politics at Macau’s University of Saint Joseph who was sacked for expressing his political views, said Beijing could crack down more easily in Macau than in Hong Kong because of the “limited grassroots push.”
The election in Macau coincides with a meeting of China’s parliament which is expected to limit 2017 elections for Hong Kong’s leader to a handful of candidates, a move likely to escalate plans by pro-democracy activists to blockade the city’s Central business district.
REUTERS
