Jason Chao claims UM management interfering in student elections

Jason Chao

Jason Chao has accused the UM administration of displaying “unnatural behavior” towards the Student Union (SU) election. In his opinion, the university rectory “is disrespecting the fact that the SU is an independent legal entity with its own charter and rules of operation” by “interfering beyond its own jurisdiction”.
Speaking yesterday as a “UMAC Watchdog” spokesperson in a press conference held at the New Macau Association office, Chao based his claims on reports from members of the SU, according to whom “UM unconventionally raised a series of unreasonable demands upon the election.”
The facts relate to UM’s alleged refusal to provide the list of students’ ID numbers, which is needed by the SU election committee to verify voters’ identities. Instead, UM opted to send university staff to the election site to perform that task. Another of the claims relates to UM’s insistence upon transporting and securing  ballots at times when the election’s voting period was interrupted.
Chao accused the UM administration of dithering when it states that it was previously agreed upon by the SU that these tasks would be performed by university staff. He says that no agreement was ever reached and, even if that ever happened, such an agreement would require approval in a formal meeting of the SU, which never happened.
The “UMAC Watchdog” spokesperson points out that this attitude from UM seeks to influence the election results and to control the actions of the SU and the students. This comes after the dismissal last year of scholar Bill Chow, with the spokesperson urging the institution to stop all interference in SU activities. RM