Over 8,600 vote in unofficial referendum

The referendum organizers met journalists yesterday outside the gov’t headquarters. Pictured, Scott Chiang and Sulu Sou

The unofficial civil referendum on the Chief Executive Election closed at 12 p.m. yesterday, with the final turnout indicating support from 95 percent of the online voters for universal suffrage in 2019.
A total of 8,688 residents voted in an unofficial referendum on democracy, which ran from Aug. 24 through to noon yesterday, according to the organizer’s official Facebook page and website. Voters were asked whether the next chief executive should be chosen by universal suffrage in 2019 and whether they have confidence in Chui.
The result of motion one was released by the organizers at the Government Headquarters yesterday afternoon. Voters who do not support universal suffrage accounted for 2.6 percent, measuring 231 ballots. There were 189 abstentions and nine blank ballots.
The result of motion two will be published tomorrow. The organizers said in the statement that all personal data collected had been erased from the system permanently by an automatic mechanism. “A person authorized by the Open Macau Society has eye-witnessed the removal of all data that may reveal clues to the voters if leaked,” read the statement.
Member of the Commission on Civil Referendum, Sulu Sou, confirmed to the press yesterday that personal data collected in the referendum were deleted within one hour of the election being completed. Jason Chao, one of the key organizers, did not attend yesterday’s announcement. “He is now in a safe place to monitor the process of destroying personal data and follow-up procedures,” Sou explained.
Chao was arrested on the day that they kicked off the referendum, but he was released afterward. Satisfied with the final turnout, Mr Sou said the result indicates that residents’ appeals on universal suffrage do exist. “Starting the political reform next year should be the most urgent task for the new government,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, he remarked that the Commission had been the subject of many opinions from the authorities and the pro-government camp since they revealed in February their intention to organize the event. “It is clear that we were pressured and suppressed during this process.” Despite the physical polling stations being banned by the authorities, So said that the final voting result was satisfying “in such an atmosphere.”
Police stormed the five referendum polling stations and detained organizers on suspicion of breaching data protection laws on Aug. 24.
At the end of the statement, the Commission on Civil Referendum censored the government regarding its abuse of power to suppress a “legal and peaceful initiative” and its “violation of fundamental human rights of the Macau citizens,” as the Commission stated in the announcement.
“It can be estimated [that] there will be more civic movements in the coming five years if the government adopts a negative attitude on political reform,” said Sou.
The group urged the authority to open a “genuine consultation” and to report Macau people’s needs to the central government.
The three activist groups organizing the unofficial referendum are Macau Conscience, Macao Youth Dynamics and the Open Macau Society.

Grace Yu