POLITICS: Cuban Elections a Foregone Conclusion

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jan 9 1998 (IPS) - Voters in Cuba have an easy time in casting their ballots. They don’t have to ponder on a choice of parties or even on a list of multiple candidates.

There is only one politicial entity, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC); alternative or opposition parties are not allowed, and voters have no choice of candidates. In other words, the number of candidates is the same as the number of posts up for election.

Authorities argue that multi-party politics favours the power of money over the qualities of individual candidates, while the exclusion of the money factor has led to the “extremely democratic” character of Cuba’s system.

National elections are scheduled for Sunday and “where I put my eye…I put my vote” (a takeoff on the popular saying “Where I put my eye, I put my bullet”) said a cartoon in the weekly ‘Juventud Rebelde’ – the publication of the Union of Young Communists. It showed a young man aiming at Uncle Sam’s chest.

The the main thrust of the official campaign is the “united vote” – a euphemism for a “vote of confidence” for the candidates and “the Revolution, Socialism and Fidel.”

But President Fidel Castro has publicly criticised the touting of the “united vote” as the key aspect of the elections, which in his opinion should be that everyone exercises their right to vote. Despite the lack of choice, 97.59 percent of registered voters turned out in October to cast their ballot in the election of 14,500 members of 169 municipal councils.

“Cuban-style elections” draw heavy criticism from the United States, the European Union and some heads of state who attend the annual Iberian-American summits (Latin America, Spain and Portugal).

But “even counterrevolutionaries vote in Cuba: they cast blank votes or cross out the names on their ballots as a way to express themselves. But they vote!” Castro said last month defending the political process here.

In a speech to the National Assembly, the president said that under Cuba’s electoral system, “if counterrevolutionaries were a majority, they could win the elections and peacefully take over the government.”

Although the opposition, clandestine by definition, cannot run candidates, it could supposedly “win” if a majority of voters refused to vote or crossed out their ballots.

But “they (the dissidents) know they will not have a majority, of course,” said Castro, who added that the Communist Party, which he heads, “neither runs candidates nor chooses – the people run and choose from the grassroots.”

Some 7.8 million people are eligible to vote in Sunday’s elections, in which 601 national-level parliamentary deputies will be chosen, along with 1,192 delegates for the provincial assemblies.

Neighbourhood meetings nominate candidates to represent the government at the grassroots level and as delegates to Municipal Assemblies. Fifty percent of the potential members of the provincial governing bodies and the National Assembly of Popular Power emerge from the Municipal Assemblies.

The other 50 percent are nominated by grassroots organisations like the Cuban Central Workers union, the Federation of Cuban Women, the Federation of University Students and the National Association of Small Farmers. Lastly, the new parliament names the 29 members of the State Council, the top governing body, which in that period is presided over by Castro, who is also head of the Council of Ministers.

“Candidates must take more than 50 percent of the votes” to be elected, explained the president of the National Electoral Commission, Manuel de Jesus Perez.

He added that 33,000 voting stations will be operating Sunday. Those who have to leave their area of residence on election day can vote whereever they happen to be. And to guarantee the greatest possible turnout, authorities will open electoral colleges even in student camps in agricultural areas.

All Cubans over 16 have the right to vote and to act as delegates at the grassroots level or in the Municipal Assemblies of Popular Power. At 18 they can be elected to the National Assembly of Popular Power.

Maria Julia Mayoral, a reporter who writes for the official daily ‘Granma’, said Thursday that in order to hold an elected post, “neither economic solvency, social position or skin colour matter…only merit counts.”

According to Mayoral, the only requisite to be elected in Cuba as a member of the government is “to have the human and revolutionary qualities endorsed by the majority of the population.”