Study: Local residents support universal suffrage

Robert Chung took part in the press conference via videoconference

A study commissioned by the New Macau Association (ANM) for the University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Program shows that Macau residents generally support the implementation of universal suffrage, with 60 percent of respondents saying they supported a democratic political system.
Thirty percent of the 506 respondents said they are uncertain whether universal suffrage should be implemented in Macau, whereas 10 percent are against it, Prof Robert Chung, director of the Public Opinion Program, told a news conference yesterday.
Two-thirds of citizens supporting universal suffrage agree that the next Chief Executive elections in 2019 would be the right time to implement a new political system. The people of Macau also think that residents should have the right to nominate candidates.
Furthermore, the survey’s results indicate that residents are unhappy with the current distribution of seats of the Legislative Assembly (AL), which is comprised of 14 directly elected lawmakers, 12 indirectly elected, and seven appointed.
Respondents would like to see a change in current seat distribution, so that five more seats are granted to directly elected lawmakers. To achieve this goal, they want three indirect seats reduced and two of the appointed lawmaker seats reduced.
Seventy percent of respondents said they support the implementation of universal suffrage for the Legislative Assembly, meaning that all lawmakers would be directly elected by the Macau people. However, 10 percent said they are against universal suffrage in Macau, mainly because they have concerns over “the quality of voters.” Prof Chung said that fears of electoral corruption and tight personal interests shown in a society as small as Macau might have contributed to this response.
“I believe Macau is a very ‘closed’ society, so there’s a lot to consider, for instance personal connections, organization networks, political pressure, all these factors might have affected respondents’ support or position on universal suffrage,” he stated.
Reiterating that this is just his personal observation, Prof Chung added that with close social networks and personal connections “there’s a higher possibility of corruption and exchange of interests,” which might have influenced people’s confidence in Macau’s voting system as well as the “quality of voters.”
The study was conducted on December 1 and 2, addressing Macau citizens aged 18 or above who speak Cantonese. 506 people were successfully interviewed.
A telephone survey was conducted by real telephone interviewers, in accordance with The University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Program. Upon successful contact with a target household, researchers would choose a household member using “the next birthday” system.
The sampling error is less than about 2.2 percent, meaning that the sampling error for percentages is less than about 4.4 percentage points at 95 percent confidence level.
Questions posed to Macau residents included: There is a suggestion that Macau’s Chief Executive should be elected by Macau people, one-person-­one vote. How much do you support or oppose this suggestion? Do you think Macau citizens should have the right to nominate candidates when the Chief Executive is returned by universal suffrage? Why do you oppose the Chief Executive being returned by universal suffrage? among other questions.
Prof Chung said that his team designed and interpreted the responses from Macau residents. Although they accepted suggestions of questions from organizations such as the New Macau Association, he stressed that his team has the necessary autonomy to conduct the research. Access to the results is available at http://hkupop.hku.hk.
Political activist Jason Chao said yesterday that New Macau is not intending to officially deliver the study’s findings to the government. Instead, they will be sharing the research with the general public through their advocacy work next year.
The scholar chose to participate in yesterday’s conference through a conference call from Hong Kong, as he assumed immigration procedures could be complicated at a sensitive time ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit.
Xi Jinping will be in Macau from tomorrow to Saturday to participate in the MSAR’s 15th anniversary celebrations.