‘New Macau under huge pressure’ over voting activity, says Chao

This September 2016 photo shows political activist Jason Chao at the offices of the New Macau Association

Political activist and international observer Jason Chao voiced his disagreement with a statement published last Saturday by the New Macau Association (ANM, from the Portuguese-language acronym). The Association statement, in the name of New Macau President Icy Kam, claims that the ANM’s online voting activity which is seeking feedback from the population on universal suffrage for the election of the Chief Executive had been suspended due to the fact that the webpage had been “affected by technical factors.”

In a statement to the Times, Chao said that he was surprised by such a decision and the claims from the ANM.
“I am shocked by the ANM’s decision to bring the vote to a premature end and delay the announcement of results,” said Chao, adding, “since I am neither politically responsible for the vote nor involved in the decision-making process, in the absence of future information, I cannot comment on the ANM’s decision.”

Chao describes himself as the technology supplier for the voting activity.

In the short statement, the ANM called for an early closing of voting (one day earlier than expected), and announced that contrary to what was announced, the results would not be disclosed yesterday, but postponed to this afternoon.

Chao said that the statement and decisions of the ANM were a “stunt” to avoid the pressure the Association suffered for hosting such an activity.
On Saturday, Chao said to the Times, “New Macau will not tell the truth because it is under huge pressure not to announce the results [yesterday].”

But, according to Chao, the worst consequence of the postponement of the results is that the ANM’s decision to give in to external pressures may lead to the public no longer believing in the integrity and safety of the system.

“As the supplier of the technology for the vote, I must assure the public that no civic voting technology applied and supported by me has ever experienced a technical issue which could bring a vote to a premature end or lead to a delay in the announcement of results,” Chao said, contradicting the New Macau statement.

“I received no report that the integrity or security of the data was compromised.  Personally, I do not understand the reference to ‘abnormalities’ [made] in the ANM statement,” Chao concluded in his clarification of the problems happening and claims regarding the cause of the interruption.

Yesterday, after announcing the result of the election for the Chief Executive in which the sole candidate Ho Iat Seng was elected with a total of 392 votes in favor, seven blank votes and one vote considered invalid, the ANM issued a statement where the Association continued its call for a more democratic system to elect local leaders.

However, the statement did not make any reference to the voting activity conducted by the association to solicit the opinions of voters on a Chief Executive election conducted by universal suffrage – entitling each resident to a vote.