HONG KONG (AP) — Macau voters have elected a young pro-democracy activist to the Chinese casino capital’s legislature, as opposition lawmakers expanded their presence at the expense of candidates linked to the gambling industry.

The results released early Monday are a surprising sign of faith in young people with progressive ideas among Macau’s notoriously apathetic electorate.

Official results showed that 26-year-old Sulu Sou won a seat in Sunday’s election for the city’s semi-democratic legislature, making him the city’s youngest-ever lawmaker, according to local news reports.

Sou’s party, the New Macau Association, favors full democracy for the 33-seat legislature, where only 14 seats are directly elected and the rest are filled by pro-establishment labor unions and special interest groups or appointed by the city’s Beijing-backed top leader. The party also aims to reinvigorate interest in politics among the former Portuguese colony’s younger generation.

Sou, who could not be reached for comment, joined three incumbent pro-democracy candidates who won re-election. Another surprise winner was newcomer Agnes Lam, a university professor seen as a centrist. There were few other changes to the rest of the directly elected seats, which remain dominated by pro-Beijing representatives.

Sou has done well in “projecting an image of freshness and youthfulness in Macau’s political landscape,” said Sonny Lo, a politics professor at HKU Space. Over the past five years, Sou “has been working very hard to raise all sorts of issues which were traditionally regarded as sensitive in Macau,” such as political reform. In 2014, he also helped lead the city’s biggest protest since its 1999 handover to China, which saw 20,000 people take to the streets to rally against a government plan to give civil servants lavish retirement benefits.

The vote also highlighted some lingering public discontent over the government’s hapless response to a powerful typhoon that battered Macau weeks earlier, flooding its old town, killing 10 and leaving hundreds more injured.

Macau’s economy has boomed over the past decade as supercharged growth in the casino industry transformed the enclave from a seedy and corrupt backwater into a glitzy gambling powerhouse.

But Lo, who calculated that gambling industry-related candidates lost two seats in direct voting, said the results indicate “many younger voters believe that the legislative assembly should not be dominated by the casino-related forces.”

Results showed 57.2 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Macau, a semiautonomous Chinese city with a population of 636,000 that is an hour by ferry from Hong Kong. </s> HONG KONG (AP) - Macau voters have elected a young pro-democracy activist to the Chinese casino capital's legislature, as opposition lawmakers expanded their presence at the expense of candidates linked to the gambling industry.

The results released early Monday are a surprising sign of faith in young people with progressive ideas among Macau's notoriously apathetic electorate.

Official results showed that 26-year-old Sulu Sou won a seat in voting Sunday for the city's semi-democratic legislature.

Sou's party, the New Macau Association, favors full democracy for the 33-seat legislature, where some seats are filled by trade and special interest groups or appointed by the city's top leader.

Results showed 57.2 percent of registered voters turned out to vote in Macau, a special Chinese region near Hong Kong. </s> HONG KONG — Macau voters have elected a young pro-democracy activist to the Chinese casino capital's legislature, as opposition lawmakers expanded their presence at the expense of candidates linked to the gambling industry.

The results released early Monday are a surprising sign of faith in young people with progressive ideas among Macau's notoriously apathetic electorate.

Sou's party, the New Macau Association, full democracy for the 33-seat legislature, where only 14 seats are directly elected while the rest are filled by trade and special interest groups or appointed by the city's top leader. The party also aims to reinvigorate interest in politics among the former Portuguese colony's younger generation.

He was one of five victorious candidates seen as representing the opposition camp, including three incumbents plus another newcomer, Agnes Lam, a university professor. Sou could not be reached for comment.

Sou has done well in "projecting an image of freshness and youthfulness in Macau's political landscape," said Sonny Lo, a politics professor at HKU Space. Over the past five years, Sou "has been working very hard to raise all sorts of issues which were traditionally regarded as sensitive in Macau," such as political reform. In 2014, he also helped lead the city's biggest protest since its 1999 handover to China, which saw 20,000 people take to the streets to rally against a government plan to give civil servants lavish retirement benefits.

Macau's economy has boomed over the past decade as supercharged growth in the casino industry transformed the enclave from a seedy and neglected backwater into a glitzy gambling powerhouse.

But Lo, who calculated that gambling industry-related candidates lost two seats in direct voting, said the results indicate "many younger voters believe that the legislative assembly should not be dominated by the casino-related forces." </s> HONG KONG: Macau's mostly pro-democracy opposition made slight gains in legislative elections, as critics saw signs of public dissatisfaction with the pro-Beijing government after a deadly typhoon battered the Asian gambling hub a month ago.

Results of Sunday's vote announced on Monday showed the opposition camp won five seats in the 33-seat legislative assembly, one more than at the last election five years ago, according to local media reports.

Macau's political landscape has long been dominated by pro-establishment, pro-Beijing and casino industry interests, and critics viewed any improvement by the opposition as an achievement.

Only 14 of the legislative seats were directly elected, a far lower proportion than in neighbouring Hong Kong, also a China-ruled former colony, that has pushed much harder and wrested greater democratic freedoms than Macau, which returned from Portuguese to Chinese rule in 1999.

Twelve other seats are indirectly elected in smaller constituencies, while another seven are appointed by Macau's Beijing-backed leader, Fernando Chui, making chances of opposition ever gaining a majority all but impossible.

Among the winners was 26-year-old pro-democracy activist and outspoken government critic, Sulu Sou, who becomes the youngest ever Macau lawmaker.

Sou was one of the young leaders that helped spearhead one of Macau's largest anti-government protests three years ago, when around 20,000 people rallied against a bill offering a generous compensation package to outgoing officials.

"In the past four years, people in Macau went through different battles, large and small," Sou wrote on his Facebook page after his victory.

"Today, people in Macau are using their votes to express their determination for change."

Sou couldn't be immediately reached by Reuters for comment.

Unlike neighbouring Hong Kong, large-scale protests are rare and grassroot dissent is relatively muted in Macau, a former Portuguese colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1999 under a "one country, two systems" arrangement.

The election took place less than a month after Typhoon Hato wrought havoc in Macau, killing ten people.

The government's failure to warn people of the devastating storm, a lack of preparedness, along with widespread and protracted cuts to power and water supplies drew public anger and exposed Macau's inadequate infrastructure.

While the opposition's gain was marginal, critics said the high 57 percent turnout rate and Sou's win should be a wake-up call for the government.

"It's an ideal result ... The people came out in greater numbers to support the opposition," Au Kam-sang, a veteran pro-democracy lawmaker who was re-elected, told Reuters.

"It reflects the incompetence of the Macau government and the aftermath of typhoon Hato," Au added. </s> More than 300,000 voters go to the polls in Macau on Sunday. Photo: K. Y. Cheng </s> Test chips with security measures by Gaming Partners International (GPI), a provider of casino currency and equipment, are displayed on a gaming table during the Global Gaming Expo Asia in Macau in this May 22, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files

MACAU (Reuters) - By night, Ieong Man Teng was dealing baccarat to gamblers at the Wynn Macau casino. By day, he was mobilizing thousands of fellow dealers to protest on the street for better working conditions and higher pay.

That made him one of the people on Beijing’s watch list earlier this year in Macau, the world’s biggest gambling hub.

Ieong, 29, said associates of prominent businessmen in Macau and a Macau politician who sits on the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) warned him in face-to-face meetings, including one at a local cafe, to tone down his activities. He did not name the politician.

“They said they were passing on a message from people up there (Beijing). I consider these to be threats,” Ieong said.

A spokesman for the CPPCC, a largely ceremonial but high profile advisory body to China’s parliament, told Reuters he did “not know anything about this”. He did not elaborate.

Ieong’s experience is part of a broader squeeze in Macau, where Beijing is tightening its grip after a series of grassroots protest actions in the former Portuguese colony. Unnerved by pro-democracy protests roiling neighboring Hong Kong, China has moved firmly in Macau to stifle any parallel challenge to the central government’s authority.

President Xi Jinping visits Macau on Dec. 19-20 to celebrate the 15th anniversary of its handover to the mainland with the territory at a crossroads.

Macau’s gambling take, which makes up 80 percent of its revenues, has suffered the biggest decline since the industry was liberalized in 2001. This is partly because Xi’s sweeping crackdown on corruption has scared off high-rollers, including corrupt officials.

Xi is also helping inaugurate a second five-year term for Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui, who was re-elected by a pro-Beijing panel in August amid unprecedented political protests.

Au Kam San, a pro-democracy Macau lawmaker, said Beijing still viewed Macau as more controllable than Hong Kong. But the protests from July to October by Ieong’s gambling union, in a city where casinos raked in $45 billion last year, troubled Beijing.

“The gambling union is much more important and it has a higher risk for Beijing because it’s mobilizing potential is much stronger,” Au said. “It’s seen as a threat to Beijing.”

The fact that gaming is so closely connected with the mainland means that Beijing cannot just look at economic growth and tax revenue “when looking at Macau’s overall well-being,” Li Fei, deputy secretary general of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee said in a speech in Macau on Dec. 3. “It must think from the perspective of China’s economic and social stability and development.”

Beijing’s Liaison Office in Macau and the Macau government did not respond to Reuters’ questions sent by fax and email.

Like Hong Kong, Macau is ruled under the one country, two systems model that affords its residents wide-ranging personal freedoms that don’t exist on the mainland. Critics say these have been eroding under pressure from China.

Last month, the University of Saint Joseph issued a document, titled “USJ policy on political activities,” that places limits on political discussion at the Catholic institution. When asked to provide a copy of the guidelines, the university’s Pro-Rector for Academic Affairs and Development Vincent Yang told Reuters they were for internal use only and declined to give more details.

The guidelines were issued after a professor at the University, Eric Sautede, was dismissed in June after writing a column in a local newspaper extolling a candlelight vigil in Macau commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square student-led protests.

Peter Stilwell, the rector of Saint Joseph‘s, said Sautede was sacked for violating the primary principle of the Church, “which is of non-intervention in local political debate”.

Bill Chou Kwok-Ping, a professor at the University of Macau and prominent civil rights activist, was let go in August for similar reasons. The University said it chose not to renew Chou’s contract because he violated professional conduct regulations by not remaining politically neutral.

Macau’s Tertiary Education Services Office is discussing guidelines that would assess universities and tertiary institutions for various issues, including funding, on the basis of whether they adhered to the principle of “love China, love Macau”, according to a person who attended the meeting.

The tertiary office did not respond to Reuters’ questions sent by email.

Situated at the mouth of China’s Pearl River delta, Macau has traditionally been sympathetic to Beijing, with around half of its 600,000 population having emigrated from the mainland over the past three decades. As a result, there has been little grassroots protest in the city since China resumed control in 1999.

That changed in May. A record 20,000 people took to the streets to protest poor public services and a bill that provided lavish perks for senior civil servants.

Then, in August, Macau activists organized an unofficial referendum asking residents whether they trusted their chief executive - as the territory’s head of government is called - and if full universal suffrage should be introduced. At the same time in Hong Kong, tensions were rising over a plan by activists, also demanding full democracy, to paralyze the central business district.

The results of the Macau referendum showed that 89 percent of the nearly 9,000 people who took part didn’t trust Chui. The sole candidate for chief executive in the August election, he was chosen by a panel of 400 largely pro-China loyalists. Data released on the poll’s online site also showed that 95 percent of the participants said they were in favor of allowing all registered voters to cast ballots for a chief executive.

Macau authorities moved quickly to disrupt the referendum, shutting polling booths. They also arrested five people for breaching privacy laws because the ballot asked for telephone and ID card numbers to prevent fraudulent voting.

Jason Chao, one of those detained, told Reuters he fled Macau for a few days at the end of the referendum to dispose of all the data, defying orders from police to hand over the information. Chao, a computer software developer and leading member of the New Macau Association, said he refused to let police officers search his apartment.

“There’s a trend for them to use the criminal justice system as justification for getting information from you, for searching your house,” Chao said in an interview in Macau, referring to the local authorities and the Chinese government. “They’re doing it to essentially deter us from escalating the movement.”

Ahead of Xi’s visit, Chao has met with men he described as plain clothes policemen and had informal meetings with representatives from Beijing, who described themselves as researchers but were not affiliated with any institution, he said.

Macau police declined to comment on questions sent by email.

Chao said he was told his group’s annual pro-democracy protest held on the anniversary of Macau’s handover could go ahead as long as it didn’t target President Xi.

“They invited me to lunch and didn’t put it in a straight-forward manner,” he said. “They diplomatically said that if you decide to do your annual demonstration as normal, it will be fine as long as you don’t do other things targeting Xi Jinping.” </s> The movement for greater autonomy from mainland China gained momentum Sunday in the most important election since the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain.

Votes were still being tallied Monday morning, but it was already clear that five seats in the Legislative Council were won by young activists who entered politics after the pro-democracy street demonstrations of 2014 and campaigned on promises to stand up to Beijing. A total of 10 ran, not including six who were barred.

Voters turned out in record numbers, with 2.2 million people, or 58% of the electorate, casting ballots. Some polling stations remained open a few hours past the 10:30 p.m. closing time to accommodate the crowds.

They will decide 35 of the 70 seats in the legislature, though about a dozen of those seats were uncontested. The rest of the legislators are chosen by various business interest groups dominated by pro-Beijing loyalists.

One winner was 23-year-old Nathan Law, who helped lead the 2014 protests — part of the so-called Umbrella Movement — with teenage activist Joshua Wong. Their party, Demosisto, calls for a referendum on Hong Kong’s future relationship with China, including the possibility of independence.

The other young activists who won include a university lecturer who had been arrested in February street protests, an environmentalist who opposes high-speed rail links to the mainland and two members of the upstart political party Youngspiration, which also calls for a referendum.

Before the elections, the legislature was divided between pro-Beijing loyalists and the so-called pan-Democratic bloc, whose 27 seats gave it veto power to block legislation.

Some voters have turned to the new generation of activists because they believe that the pan-Democratic faction is inadequately defending Hong Kong’s interests and autonomy.

The activists and pan-Democrats combined appear to have won far more votes than the pro-Beijing faction.

“It matters less who got elected. This is the way for voters to show after Umbrella Movement they’re turning away from pro-Beijing loyalists,” said legislator Leung Kwok-hung of the pan-Democratic camp.

Beijing-backed Hong Kong Chief Executive C.Y. Leung has said he’ll announce whether he’ll run for a second term after the elections.

Under a mini-constitution known as Basic Law, Hong Kong enjoys freedoms that go far beyond those of mainland China. That arrangement is set to expire in 2047, when the former British colony reverts to full Chinese control.

Legislators are limited to voting on bills and funding proposals put forth by the government and are not allowed to propose their own. There is no provision for a referendum of any sort.

The ban of six pro-independence candidates was based on the notion that their advocacy for independence violated the Basic Law, which states that Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China.

“This is to show if you go down on the path of advocating independence, there is no return, and you’ll be blocked by the government,” said Ching Cheong, a local political commentator. “What the Chinese Communist Party wants is to nip it in the bud, even when pro-Beijing loyalists here know this is impossible in a pluralistic society like Hong Kong.

“Even as they’re barred from running, their political demands cannot be ignored and their political appeal will only grow,” Ching said.

One of the banned candidates, Edward Leung, said in July that he might file an election petition with the court to overturn the results. That now seems unlikely, because the candidate he supported, Sixtus Leung of the Youngspiration party, won a seat.

There are other signs that their camp is gaining strength.

A recent poll by the Chinese University of Hong Kong showed that 40% of people in Hong Kong under the age of 25 support independence, though most think it is impossible.

In June 2015, the legislature rejected election rules drafted by Beijing that would have limited candidates for the 2017 election of Hong Kong’s high office to two or three Beijing loyalists.

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Islamic State has lost all territory along the Syria-Turkey border, Turkish news agency says </s> HONG KONG: A new generation of young Hong Kong politicians advocating a break from Beijing looked set to become lawmakers for the first time Monday in the biggest poll since mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014.

A record 2.2 million people voted in the city-wide legislative election which ended in the early hours of Monday and saw activists who support Hong Kong’s independence from China standing for the first time.

It comes as fears grow that Beijing is tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city in a range of areas, from politics to education and media.

In a landmark victory, at least three of a handful of young campaigners calling for much more distance from Beijing were forecast to win seats with 90 percent of the vote counted.

Among them is Nathan Law, 23, leader of the 2014 “Umbrella Movement” rallies, who is guaranteed a seat after coming second in his constituency behind a pro-Beijing candidate.

Law and his new party Demosisto are calling for a referendum on independence, emphasising Hong Kongers’ right to choose.

“I think Hong Kongers really wanted change,” Law said, celebrating his win.

“Young people have a sense of urgency when it comes to the future.”

Law will now take up a seat in the Legislative Council (LegCo), Hong Kong’s lawmaking body.

Most established pro-democracy politicians do not support the notion of independence and there were concerns in the democratic camp that new activists would split the vote, triggering overall losses.

If the democrats lose four seats, they will forfeit the one-third voting bloc they need to veto bills, stacking the already skewed legislature even more in favour of Beijing.

However, early results showed the democrats are likely to hold on to that veto power.

Beijing bias

 It is as good a result as the democrats could hope for, given that the framework of LegCo favours Beijing.

The structure of the council makes it almost impossible for the democracy camp to take a majority as 30 of the council’s 70 seats are elected by special interest groups representing a range of businesses and social sectors. Those seats go predominantly to pro-Beijing candidates.

Fears that Hong Kong’s freedoms are disappearing were fanned after five city booksellers known for salacious titles about Beijing politicians disappeared, resurfacing in detention on the mainland.

That fuelled the fire of the “localist” movement, which grew out of the failure of the 2014 rallies to win political reform pushing for more distance from Beijing.

It saw the emergence of young campaigners demanding outright independence for Hong Kong —a subject previously taboo.

Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” agreement intended to protect its freedoms and partial autonomy for 50 years. However, many young campaigners believe that deal has failed.

Pro-democracy campaigners with megaphones urged voters to get to the polls Sunday to prevent the LegCo swinging further towards Beijing.

At some polling stations there were snaking queues until until 2:30 am (1830 Sunday GMT) — four hours later than the scheduled cut-off time — with a turnout of almost 60 percent of 3.7 million voters.

That compares with 53 percent in the last LegCo elections in 2012. </s> Voters turn out in force for crucial Hong Kong election

HONG KONG (AP) — Voters turned out in force Sunday for Hong Kong's most crucial election since the handover from Britain in 1997, the outcome of which could pave the way for a fresh round of political confrontations over Beijing's control of the city.

The vote for Legislative Council lawmakers will test the unity of Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp, with a new generation of radical activists joining the race after emerging in the wake of 2014 pro-democracy street protests.

They're hoping to ride a rising tide of anti-China sentiment as they challenge formidably resourced pro-Beijing rivals for seats. Many of the newcomers back the previously unthinkable idea of independence for Hong Kong, which has added to divisions with the broader pro-democracy movement and overshadowed the election. Last month, officials disqualified six pro-independence candidates in an attempt to tamp down the debate, though other candidates with similar views made the cut.

Hong Kongers feel they have few other negotiating tactics left in their battle for genuine democracy as Beijing takes an increasingly hard-line stance.

"It's bleak, but I think if China doesn't leave us to do what we want, I think the only way is to fight for independence," Aron Yuen, a 34-year-old college lecturer, said as he stood in line with about 100 other people to cast their ballots. "You can't negotiate with somebody who doesn't keep their promise."

Yuen planned to vote for 23-year-old Nathan Law, who, along with teen activist Joshua Wong, helped lead the 2014 protests. Their party, Demosisto, advocates a referendum on "self-determination" of Hong Kong's future.

Voters were choosing from among 84 lists of candidates to fill 35 seats in a complex system of geographic constituencies that makes results, expected Monday, hard to predict.

At stake is the power to keep the city's widely unpopular Beijing-backed leader, Leung Chun-ying, and his government in check. "Pan-democrat" lawmakers currently control 27 of 70 seats, compared with 43 held by lawmakers friendly to Beijing. The democrats are fighting to keep control of at least a third of the seats, which gives them veto power to block government attempts to enact unpopular legislation, including a renewed attempt to enact Beijing's controversial election revamp that triggered the 2014 street protests.

The risk is that the pro-democracy vote will be split, allowing pro-Beijing candidates to take more seats and removing a major hurdle for the government's proposals, which in turn could lead to a new round of political confrontations.

Turnout appeared to be higher than average, with long lines of people still waiting to cast ballots at some polling stations by the time voting was supposed to end. Some 52.6 percent of nearly 3.8 million registered voters had turned out an hour before polls closed, matching the total turnout for the previous election four years ago. Turnout in the 2008 election was 45.2 percent, according to the government's website.

Earlier Sunday, a small group of protesters demanded Leung step down outside a polling station where he cast his vote.

"The democracy in the election is reflected by the free choice of voters, they do not need to be told who to vote (for)," he said when asked his thoughts on how results would be affected after seven candidates with low support, most of them pro-democracy, suspended their campaigns at the last minute in a bid to consolidate votes for others.

Hong Kong has been the scene of increasingly bitter political turmoil since the last legislative election in 2012. The growing calls for independence highlight frustration among residents, especially young people, who are chafing under Beijing's tightening hold. A spate of incidents, including the disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers who later resurfaced in detention in mainland China, has aroused fears that Beijing is reneging on its promise of wide autonomy for Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" framework.

His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/kelvin-chan
Voters in Macau vote for a new Legislative Assembly.