HAVANA ( Associated Press) – Cubans will vote on Sunday to renew the National Assembly of the People’s Power, the only parliament, on a day that comes amid a major economic and immigration crisis.
Some 8.1 million islanders were given the opportunity to vote in some 23,648 schools established throughout the country to choose between 470 candidates for representatives with the same number of seats in parliament.
The outcome of the day seems inevitable, although one indicator that should be watched carefully is how many voters abstain. That number has grown over the past decade, which some critics point to as a reflection of people’s economic problems and distrust of the political system.
The electoral model in the island does not consider the participation of political parties or election campaigns as in other countries, which have historically generated criticism from opponents who are called to refrain from this opportunity, especially in social networks. The leaders, meanwhile, maintain that it is representative and popular.
The authorities indicated that some hundreds of thousands of people were directed to control polling stations and supervise voting, which began at seven o’clock in the morning local time. The tables are kept by primary school children. Voting is secret but not compulsory on the island.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who the day before was at the Ibero-American Summit in the Dominican Republic, voted in his native province of Villa Clara, where he was accompanied by his wife Lis Cuesta.
In front of the local press, the leader discussed the economic problems – shortages, resource shortages, food shortages – in the middle of the day.
“They can foresee a certain economic situation, but most people know that no matter how difficult the economic situation is to work together (than the problems they are facing), if we were a colony of the United States again, we would only leave the problems. If we privatize everything, what will happen to the young people?
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The process actually began in November with the nomination and voting of municipal councilors or communities – level councilors – for the formation of local administrations, from which many names emerged in the recent list.
By law, 50% of the candidates for current pro-managers come from this grassroots level across the country, the other half, who are usually prominent personalities, from artists and scientists to emperors, are proposed to the commissions of candidates made by the Central Cuban Workers. and social and neighborhood agencies, which completed 470 audits.
The Communist Party, together with the legal status in Cuba, does not present nominations but many nomination commissions belong to it.
In the list of future ambassadors presented a few weeks ago, Díaz-Canel, former president Raúl Castro and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, among others.
Parliament will be established on April 19 and the supreme executive, the president, the president and the Council of State will be released.
One of the arguments put forward by the authorities about the absence of electoral parties in political Cuba is that, according to what they say, they seek to avoid corruption and corruption by them as being able to promote and resist the interference of the United States, whose sanctions. more than 60 years old has been hardened during the past administration of former President Donald Trump.
Although low in relation to other Latin American countries, abstinence has grown in recent processes, even reaching 31% in the November municipal elections. In addition to calls for dissent and/or abstention from dissident groups, hundreds of thousands of people immigrating in the coming months – some 300,000 to the United States alone – will not be able to vote, which would increase absenteeism.
