School children staff the polling stations. The voters have personal contact with the candidates during the nomination process. Candidates are nominated and selected based on their service to the community, and not by corporate-sponsored advertising and promises. The people feel so vested in the electoral process that over 95 percent participate.
This is what the Oct. 21 elections looked like for the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power in socialist Cuba.
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This electoral system has been in place since the 1976 constitution. Over 15,000 candidates are elected to make up 169 Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power. These elected officials receive no salary for their posts. Their posts will run for two and a half years.
These electoral procedures were only made possible by Cuba’s revolution and its leaders’ orientation toward building socialism. The ongoing revolution overturned the dictatorship of capitalist rule over the island’s 11 million people and directed the economy and society toward socialism. Bourgeois elections under capitalism can never be free and fair.
In the capitalist United States, Congress is a talk shop—a rubber stamp for corporate imposed decisions. The executive branch is elected by a 538 electors that are assigned by popular votes. These electors can disregard the popular vote as was the case in the 2000 election where candidate Al Gore had more popular votes, but did not earn the support of the electors of the Electoral College. Of course, the President and Vice President only adhere to the wishes of the bosses and the banks who promote them to the voters.
In socialist Cuba the National Assembly has powers to amend the Constitution and create national plans for economic development and foreign policies. There are multiple commissions that report to the National Assembly on issues concerning food production, transportation and communications, construction, health and defense. These elected officials plan the development of the nation in the interest of the people they represent.
Candidates are not nominated in board rooms, but in public meetings and by trade unions, farmers’ organizations, student unions and neighborhood committees called Committees in the Defense of the Revolution.
The right to vote in Cuba extends to all citizens with residence of two years on the island starting with youth at the age of 16. In this election, there were more women and youth candidates than ever before—nearly 27 percent were women and 17 percent youth.
The Assembly also elects the Council of the State, the president, vice president and the secretary of the Council of State, as well as members of the Supreme Court and the attorney general.
María Esther Reus, president of the National Electoral Commission, reported that one-third of the candidates nominated by the people were not members of the Communist Party of Cuba. Membership is not a requirement for nomination. Yet, members of the Party, who show the most leadership and sacrifice for the people they represent, make up the majority of the candidates.
The only disturbance to people’s direct rule in Cuba came from outside the island with a new set of threats from President George W. Bush. Bush delivered a warmongering speech threatening a “transition” after the death of Fidel Castro. The speech was delivered just prior to the Oct. 30 U.N. General Assembly landslide vote condemning the over 45-year-old U.S. blockade of Cuba.
According to Cuba’s Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, the blockade has cost Cuba $222 billion in development and other basic necessities.
But the imperialist threats did not prevent a people’s democracy from choosing their leadership in this next phase of building socialism.
