Cuba votes in municipal elections, opposition condemns “pressure”.
Cubans voted in municipal elections on Sunday amid an economic crisis and a move to distance themselves from the opposition, which denounced “pressure” on its candidates.
A man leaves a polling station during the first round of municipal elections for councilors in Havana on November 27, 2022.
AFP
Polling stations closed at 7:00pm (1:00am Swiss time), an hour later than scheduled, and the polling went off without incident. Officials said the decision to extend the polling booths and voters was made.
According to the National Election Council, as of 5:00 p.m., nearly 64% of the more than 8 million people over the age of 16 (out of a population of 11.2 million) who were invited to vote had cast their ballots. They were invited to elect 12,427 Municipal People’s Power Representatives (Councillors) from around 27,000 candidates nominated by voters by show of hands in the neighborhood assemblies.
The government ran an intensive campaign on social media, newspapers and television with the hashtag “YoVotoEl27” (JeVoteLe27), under the control of the ruling Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), which did not field candidates in municipal elections. But oversees the electoral process.
The Council for Democratic Transition (CTDC), an opposition platform that promises changes in the country through legal means, called for an abstention under the slogan “Sin pluralismo, #YoMeAbstengo” (Without pluralism, I abstain).
“Pressures” and “Threats”
One of its candidates, José Cabrera, was “elected” to the town hall of Palma Soriano in Santiago de Cuba (southeast), but then “they began to threaten him with expulsion” and “to pressure him to distance himself” from the council”, the movement’s vice president Manuel Cuesta told AFP. described to Three other CTDC candidates were “prevented from participating by the political police because they had strong chances of winning”, he said. The Cuban government accuses the opposition of being “mercenaries” in the pay of the United States.
On Sunday morning, President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who returned from an official trip to Algeria, Russia, Turkey and China, cast his vote with his wife Liz Costa in Playa, west of Havana. He told reporters that despite the “economic strangulation” by the United States, the electoral process testified to the island’s political and social stability.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel casts his vote during the first round of municipal elections for councilors in Havana on November 27, 2022.
AFP
The elections are the first phase of a single electoral mechanism in place since 1976, followed by parliamentary elections in 2023 and a presidential election later in the year. Elected councilors form municipal teams and 50% of them propose candidates to the provincial councils and parliament, which elects the Council of State and the country’s president. The remaining 50% will be provided by social organizations close to the government.
The second round is on December 4
In theory, the electoral system allows any Cuban citizen to have access to parliament. But the opposition condemns the process, believing that with its influence and the votes of its militants and supporters, the CCP has succeeded in ensuring that no opponent is elected.
A deep economic crisis hitting the island, food, medicine and daily electricity shortages and an exodus of migrants could weigh on the results of these elections, the first since President Díaz-Canel came to power in 2018. .
Candidates who do not get an absolute majority on Sunday will face a runoff on December 4.
AFP
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