The next March 26th the elections to the National Assembly of Popular Power (ANPP) of Cuba are held. According to the Constitution, it is a single party regime (Communist Party of Cuba –PCC-) and in which only the model can exist socialist.
The constitutional text, in its article 4, establishes that “the socialist system that endorses this Constitution is irrevocable” and that “citizens have the right to fight by all means, including armed struggle (…) against anyone who tries to overthrow the political, social and economic order established by this Constitution.”
But what is interesting, and also questioning the Cuban case, is to understand how the electoral system is designed to filter the political participation of dissidents and guarantee that only people arrive at the levels of power at all levels of government (municipal, provincial and national). subordinate to the PCC.
To achieve this, the Cuban regime has developed a complex institutional framework to try (unsuccessfully) to provide legitimacy to the authorities, even if they do not compete in multi-party, fair and transparent elections.
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Although the defenders of the Cuban model assure that in the elections the pcc does not postulate candidatesTherefore, it would be an electoral process without parties (as if that were something positive, as can be inferred from the article published in Granma, on February 5), the truth is that the PCC is present through the Security of the State, mass organizations, candidacy commissions and even the National Electoral Council (CNE), the island’s highest electoral authority, whose authorities are proposed by the same Miguel Diaz-CanelPresident of the Republic (and first secretary of the PCC).
At all levels of government (municipal, provincial and national) only candidates who agree with the PCC arrive.
The candidacy commissions work at the municipal, provincial and national levels. In all cases, its function is to prepare lists of candidates that have the approval of the PCC. If at the municipal level the law requires that at least two candidates per constituency face each other, at the national level this requirement does not exist, so the Commission draws up a list of as many candidates as positions to choose, in this case, 470 candidates for 470 seats.
Therefore, citizens do not choose, but rather have the option of endorsing the selection of the PCC.
There are no technical or merit criteria for the creation of the lists. According to the president of the national candidacy commission, Julia Durruthy, the commissions at all levels initially nominated 19,240 candidateslist that was reduced at first to 4,600, and then to 470.
Of the 19,240 initial candidates, only 470 remained, after review by the National Electoral Council
As is clear, the selection of candidacies is completely arbitrary and responds to power relations within the PCCin which the nominations committee plays the role of executing arm.
When the more than 8 million Cubans qualified to vote On March 26, go to the polling stations, you will not have options between different parties, programs or coalitions: you will only be able to choose whether to vote for the entire PCC list or for just one of the candidates in your constituency.
Faced with the impossibility of choosing, abstentionism has grown forcefully and sustained in recent electoral processes. If before the Cuban regime could boast of participation percentages above 95%, in the referendum on the Family Code last September the participation was 75% and the rejection of the official proposal reached 33%; while in the municipal elections in November abstention increased by 31%, and if null and blank votes are added, reaches 40%.
In a context of systematic violation of the human rightsrestriction of freedoms (more than a thousand political prisoners), economic crisis deep and pauperization of living conditions, abstaining is not disaffection, but rather the only opportunity to establish a political position.
*Director of Institutional Development of Electoral Transparency. Demo Amlat Coordinator. @JesusDValery @TransparenciaAL @DemoAmlat
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