First modification:
At least eight million Cubans are called to the polls on this day. The process begins a new cycle that will culminate next year with the formation of Parliament, which in turn elects the President of the Republic.
Very early in the morning, the polling stations opened throughout the country to elect the delegates of the municipal assemblies of popular power. Eight million Cubans are summoned to vote to select the officials who are closest to the population.
Of those who are already in office, only 27% opt for re-election. According to official figures, throughout the country, of about 11 million inhabitants, 44% of the candidates are women. The total number of candidates rises to 26,746.
Electoral campaigns are prohibited for this type of process. The profiles of the candidates are exposed in the main meeting points of the constituency without proposals, with the behavior and leadership of the chosen one being their main letters to be elected.
electoral scheme
With the formation of the municipal assemblies of Popular Power, the cycle begins that will culminate with the election of the National Assembly and this, in turn, the main positions of the nation.
The municipal assemblies are in charge, among other issues, of choosing the members of the Provincial Councils, headed by the provincial governor, directly proposed by the President of the Republic.
They also make up the Candidacy Commissions, which propose half of the delegates to the National Assembly. The remaining positions are chosen by organizations related to the State.
One independent candidate
The ‘Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba’ platform, which opposes the prevailing political system on the island, made it known that only one of its seven chosen to run in the process was nominated to be voted on.
According to the organization, three of the applicants did not obtain the necessary support in their respective assemblies and another three denounced that they were not allowed to present themselves.
These days there has been a media confrontation between the national media, controlled by the State, and the independent ones, based mainly outside the country. They denounce the government’s control over the elections and call on the people not to vote, as a way of demonstrating against the current situation in the nation.
The main newspapers in the country accuse the independents of boycotting the elections. “These very good format communication products respond to the objective of sabotaging that democratic exercise that contradicts” the different adverse theses that are formulated against the island’s politics, indicated a publication of the newspaper ‘Granma’.
Díaz-Canel highlights “political and social stability” and attributes the economic situation to the United States.
The President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, attended to vote immediately after arriving from an international tour that took him to four nations; Russia, China, Algeria and Turkey, the majority allied with Havana.
In statements to the local and foreign press gathered at the site, the president assured that “the electoral process confirms that Cuba maintains its political and social stability.”
The head of state also attributed the current economic situation in the country to “economic suffocation” that, according to the leader, the United States is trying to implement so that discontent and overwhelm due to deficiencies is the spark that ignites a social outbreak throughout the country.
Díaz-Canel also referred to the agreements reached on the tour, which had a fundamentally economic nuance.
“We found concrete actions to restructure the debt we had with those countries, which leaves us with payment facilities that allow us to move forward and not slow down a group of projects and businesses in terms of economic and financial relations,” he said, among others. details.
With EFE and local media
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