Cuba
Cuban People Give Strong Vote of Confidence to Their Revolution
Through their participation and the results they delivered in the March 26 parliamentary election the Cuban people made a strong statement in support of their Revolution, its leadership and Cuba's democracy. In a fitting rebuke to the U.S.-inspired smear campaign of Cuba's People's Power and push for citizens to abstain from voting, 76 per cent of registered voters turned out to elect the 470 deputies who will hold seats in the National Assembly of People's Power for the next five years.
Of the ballots cast, 90.3 per cent represented valid votes; 6.2 per cent were blank and 3.5 per cent were spoiled. Every one of the newly elected and re-elected deputies obtained over 61 per cent of the valid votes in their respective electoral districts, making it unnecessary to hold any second round votes or seek new candidates – a statement in itself. Among those elected or re-elected were the First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Vice-President Salvador Valdés and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and the country's Past President and historic leader of the Revolution, Raúl Castro along with many other recognized leaders and well known personalities in different fields of endeavour as well as workers from a cross-section of the economy and students.
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Women now hold 55.3 per cent of the seats in the new parliament, second only to Rwanda in that regard. The average age of deputies is 46, with 20 per cent being 35 years old or younger. Forty-five per cent are of African descent and 64 per cent are first-time deputies.
Voting in Cuba is voluntary, with citizens 16 years of age and up who have been resident in Cuba the last two years eligible to vote. On election day voters were able to cast their ballots at any of 23,648 voting stations around the island, which included 250 special polls held in hospitals, hotels, campgrounds and other places where a need was identified.
Voters were presented with a ballot containing the names of candidates nominated in their municipality or electoral district. For example, in Villa Clara there were eight candidates, one of whom was President Miguel Díaz-Canel. The candidates have all gone through a rigorous multi-stage candidate selection process in which it is the people themselves, the mass organizations to which 90 per cent of Cubans belong, and the recently elected delegates to the country's 169 Municipal Assemblies -- not the Communist Party of Cuba or any political party -- who have proposed and nominated them. In Cuba's parliamentary elections, people have the option of voting for all of the candidates on their ballot, just for some of them, one, or none. In this election, 72.1 per cent of electors voted for all of the candidates on their ballot while 27.9 per cent voted selectively for only some candidates.
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The vote for all candidates on the slate was a response to the call for a united vote in the face of the very difficult circumstances the Cuban people are experiencing as a result of the siege the country has been put under by the U.S. It was a vote cast in the spirit of Fidel's speech in 1993, during the Special Period, calling on Cubans at that time to defend the Revolution, its values and many achievements by sending a clear message to the enemy of "our unity, of our strength, our determination." That is what the majority of Cubans did on March 26.
Elaborating on the rationale for a united vote, President Díaz-Canel explained at a meeting of candidates with residents of Villa Clara that it is recommended so that all candidates, whether they are more or less known to the people, are on equal terms, given that they all have enormous merits even though some are less known than others. Rather than choosing among several candidates to elect just one, Cuba's system aims to have all those confirmed through the multi-stage nomination process elected, so everyone is represented, he said.
It is a revolutionary strategy, he said, but not an imposition. Those who understand the reason for the united vote, vote for everyone on the list; those who do not, vote selectively. The important thing, he emphasized, is enabling all candidates to be elected so that no one is diminished or at a disadvantage because they are more or less known.
Taking place as it did when U.S. aggression aimed at turning the Cuban people against their revolution and its leadership is at an all time high, the turnout and results of the election represented a strong vote of confidence in the Revolution and its leadership and a clear repudiation of the efforts of counterrevolutionary elements and their U.S. instigators to convince people not to exercise their right to vote.
The pressure to abstain took
different forms. One involved incessantly presenting the
effects of the suffocating U.S. blockade and campaign of
applying "maximum pressure" on Cuba -- meaning on the Cuban
people -- as being the fault of the Cuban government. It
also included the circulation of false rumours such as that
anyone who voted in the election would not be able to apply
for admission to the U.S. through the "humanitarian parole"
avenue which allows Cubans otherwise inadmissible or
ineligible for admission to the U.S. to be admitted on a
temporary basis for "urgent humanitarian reasons." On
election day, counterrevolutionary "influencers" took to
social media to spread lies about Cubans staying away from
voting centres in droves, when in fact just two hours after
the polls opened, almost 1.5 million Cubans -- 18 per cent
of the total electoral roll -- had already voted.
The U.S. has also been causing trouble by encouraging the irregular and often dangerous emigration of Cubans, recently going so far as to grant asylum to a person who hijacked and flew a plane to the U.S. from Cuba in violation of formal agreements between the two countries as well as Cuban law, international law and civil aeronautics regulations.
When the preliminary results were announced on the morning of March 27 by the National Electoral Council, President Díaz-Canel greeted them by saying that in spite of all the draconian measures the U.S. resorted to, "Cuba Won!" He also said there was only one way to respond to the vote, which he called extraordinary in the current conditions of the nation and the world: fulfil our commitments to the people.
Miguel Díaz-Canel Re-Elected President of Cuba at Opening
Session
of New Parliament
On April 19, one of the most significant dates in the history of revolutionary Cuba, marking the anniversary of the defeat in 1961 of the U.S. invasion forces at Playa Giron, the 10th Legislature of the National Assembly of People's Power held its constitutive session. As their first act after taking the oath of office, the deputies elected the president, vice president, and secretary of the National Assembly and other members of its Council of State, as well as the president and vice president of the Republic from among their own ranks. They did so following a rigorous process analogous to the one by which they themselves were proposed, nominated and elected.
To establish the candidacies for these leadership positions, members of the National Candidacy Commission met personally with deputies around the country elected on March 26 and received their individual written proposals for candidates. After consideration of all the proposals, on April 19 the Commission presented deputies with the names and biographies of candidates they recommended for the positions to be elected. The candidacies were all approved through a show of hands, following which deputies voted in a secret ballot where they could accept or reject each candidate or abstain from voting. Esteban Lazo was re-elected as president of the National Assembly and Council of State and Ana Mari Machado as vice president through this process .
The same process led to the candidates for president and vice president of the Republic being approved and then elected, with a number of deputies rising to speak before balloting took place about why those nominated merited election. The process culminated with the re-election of Miguel Díaz-Canel as president with an overwhelming vote of confidence of 97.66 per cent, and of Salvador Valdés as vice president with a vote of 93.4 per cent. Finally, on the recommendation of President Díaz-Canel, deputies appointed the country's prime minister (Manuel Marrero), deputy prime ministers, secretary and other members of the Council of Ministers.
Congratulations to the Cuban people for the decisive victory they have achieved in these elections by giving a strong vote of confidence to their Revolution, their revolutionary leadership and the democratic processes they have provided themselves with to defend and continue perfecting their People's Power.
(Prensa Latina, Granma. Photos: Presidencia Cuba, ACN, Cubadebate, Venceremos)
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 4 - April 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M5300416.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca