High voter turnout in Macau shakes up political status quo as youngest ever lawmaker elected
Government’s handling of recent typhoon cited as fuelling discontent in city
High voter turnout in Macau legislative elections has shaken up the city’s political status quo and delivered a black eye to top officials over their inept handling of a deadly typhoon that slammed the casino hub weeks before the polls.
Among the trio of newcomers is pro-democracy campaigner, Sulu Sou, 26, who will become the youngest ever person to take a seat in Macau’s Legislative Assembly. His New Macau Progressives group advocates a legislature fully elected by universal suffrage.
While the pro-establishment camp maintained its position as the biggest bloc in the assembly, the Macau United Citizens Association, backed by power broker, Chan Meng-kam, of the city’s influential Fujianese community, lost two of its three seats.
The two other newly-elected candidates were independent Agnes Lam Iok-fong, of Civic Watch, and Leong Sun-iok, of the pro-establishment Macau Federation of Trade Unions.
Macau set for record turnout in Legislative Assembly polls
Another surprise came when José Maria Pereira Coutinho, a controversial and vocal critic of the Macau government whom many thought would lose, was re-elected. He won by a margin of more than 1,000 votes.