Elections in Cuba

Politics of Cuba
show Constitution Law
show Communist Party Congress Central Committee (8th) First Secretary Miguel Díaz-Canel Second Secretary José Ramón Machado Ventura Politburo (8th) Secretariat (8th)
show National Assembly Esteban Lazo Hernández Council of State () President Esteban Lazo Hernández Vice President Secretary Presidency (9th) President Miguel Díaz-Canel Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa Council of Ministers (—) Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz Ramiro Valdés Menendéz José Amado Ricardo Guerra Judiciary People's Supreme Court () Ruben Remigio Ferro () () Gladys María Bejerano Portela
show Elections Recent elections Parliamentary: 2013 2018 2023
show Administrative divisions Provinces Municipalities Committees for the Defense of the Revolution
show Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister: Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla Diplomatic missions of / in Cuba Passports Visa requirements Visa policy
show Related topics Human rights Cuban military internationalism Cuban medical internationalism
Cuba portal Other countries
v t

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (February 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Elections in Cuba are held at municipal, provincial, and national levels.^[1] Elections in Cuba are not democratic.^[2][3][4][5] Cuba is a single-party authoritarian state with the Communist Party of Cuba as the "leading force of society and of the state" under the national constitution.

Candidates for National Assembly of People's Power elections are nominated by organs that are firmly controlled by the Communist Party of Cuba.^[6][7] The National Assembly is only in session for a few days each year.^[5] The Council of State is the executive committee of the National Assembly and issues decree-laws with the full force of law when the National Assembly is not in session.^[5] Members of the Council of State, which serve in the National Assembly, do not reflect popular outcomes in the elections.^[5] According to a 2021 study, under competitive elections, most members of the Council of State might have been defeated.^[5]

Cuba's authoritarian political system has been condemned by human rights groups and opposition groups, as well as foreign Western governments. The Cuban government contends that the system is democratic.

Fidel Castro was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) from 1961 until 2011, and was in power first as Prime Minister and then as President, from 1959 until 2008. Castro's brother Raúl Castro was designated Fidel's successor at the 5th Communist Party congress in October 1997.^[8] Fidel Castro officially retired on 19 April 2011, leaving his brother as the sole candidate for First Secretary.^[9]

Procedure[]

According to the constitution, Cuba is a socialist republic where all members or representative bodies of state power are elected and subject to recall and the masses control the activity of the state agencies, the deputies, delegates and officials. Elections in Cuba have two phases:

1. election of delegates to the Municipal Assembly, and
2. election of deputies to the Provincial and National Assemblies.

Candidates for municipal assemblies are nominated on an individual basis at local levels by the local population at nomination assemblies.^[10] Candidates for provincial assemblies and the National Assembly are nominated by the municipal assemblies from lists compiled by national, provincial and municipal candidacy commissions.^[10] Suggestions for nominations are made at all levels mainly by mass organizations, trade unions, people's councils, and student federations.^[11] The final list of candidates for the National Assembly, one for each district, is drawn up by the National Candidacy Commission;^[11] however, voters can, in theory, veto a candidate, because if a candidate were fail to gain 50% of the vote, a new candidate would have to be chosen.^{[citation needed]}

Anyone older than 16 other than those mentally incapacitated, imprisoned, or deprived of their political rights can vote and be nominated to these posts.^[10] No political parties (including the Communist Party of Cuba) are permitted to campaign.^{[citation needed]} Instead, voters can consult candidates' biographies and photographs posted on public locations.^[12] All elections take place by secret ballot. Suffrage is afforded to Cuban citizens resident for two years on the island who are aged over sixteen years and who have not been found guilty of a criminal offense.

Municipal elections[]

Candidates of the 2008 elections of the national and provincial parliaments in Santiago de Cuba

The election of municipal assembly delegates involves nomination by voters in nomination assemblies, compilation of posting of candidate biographies, voting by secret ballot, and recall.^[1] Municipal assemblies are elected every two and a half years. Municipal elections are officially non-partisan.

Nomination assemblies are held about a month before the election in areas within the electoral districts.^[13] During regular elections, from 70% to over 90% of the electorate attend the nomination assemblies.^[13] Municipal candidates must be at least 16 years old.^[10]

In elections held on 21 October 2007, turnout was reported to be 8.1 million voters, approximately 95% of the population eligible to vote, which was less than the last such election on April 17, 2005, where voter turnout was 97%.^[14] Elections were then held in 2010 and 2013.

Provincial elections[]

Municipal candidacy commissions submit nominations for provincial delegates to provincial candidacy commissions.^[11] The provincial candidacy commissions produce the final list of provincial assembly candidates.^[11]

National elections[]

Cuba's national legislature, the National Assembly of People's Power, has 609 members who sit for five-year terms. Members of the National Assembly represent multiple-member constituencies (2 to 5 members per district), with one Deputy for each 20,000 inhabitants.

Candidates for the National Assembly are chosen by candidacy commissions chaired by local trade union officials and composed of elected representatives of "mass organisations" representing workers, youth, women, students and farmers.^{[citation needed]} The provincial and municipal candidacy commissions submit nominations to the National Candidacy Commission.^[11] The municipal candidacy commissions produce slates of recommended candidates for each electoral district, mainly submit nominations for candidates that are also municipal delegates, and first submit their nominations to their municipal assembly who may approve or replace nominations.^[15] The final list of candidates for the National Assembly, one for each district, is drawn up by the National Candidacy Commission,^[11] taking into account criteria such as candidates’ popularity, merit, patriotism, ethical values and “revolutionary history.”^[16] At least half of the National Assembly candidates selected must have been previously elected as delegates to these assemblies.^[17]

Although there is only one candidate per seat, candidates must, in theory, obtain the support of 50% of voters to be elected.^{[citation needed]} If a candidate were to fails to gain 50% of the vote, a new candidate would have to be chosen.^{[citation needed]} However, this has never occurred.

Elections to the National Assembly were held on 24 February 2008. According to the Cuban Ministry of External Affairs, at the October 2002 elections to the Candidacy Commissions which preceded the January 2003 National Assembly elections, "32,585 candidates were nominated for the 14,949 seats up for election in October 2001 at grassroots assemblies in which 81.7% of the voters participated." So far no candidate for the National Assembly has ever failed to gain 50% of the vote, because the candidates put forward by the candidacy commissions usually receive at least 84% support.^[18]

Right of legislative proposals[]

Article 88(h) of the Cuban constitution, adopted in 1976, provides for citizen proposals of law, prerequisite that the proposal be made by at least 10,000 citizens who are eligible to vote. In 2002 supporters of a movement known as the Varela Project submitted a citizen proposal of law with 11,000 signatures calling for a national referendum on political and economic reforms.

The Cuban National Assembly Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee tabled the Varela Project citizens' initiative and responded with a counter initiative, the petition for which collected 8.1 million signatures, to request that Cuba's National Assembly amend the constitution to state "Socialism and the revolutionary political and social system...are irrevocable; and Cuba will never again return to capitalism."^[19] At the same time, millions of Cubans took to the street in support of the government. The BBC reported that some citizens had felt pressured to sign the government petition.^[20] The national legislature meets twice a year for a week, to pass unanimously all the bills proposed by the executive branch. In between the sessions, the Council of State and the NAPP's commissions perform its legislative duties.

Political parties[]

The Communist Party of Cuba is the official state party and Cuba is a one-party state;^[21][22][23] the single-party system is enshrined in Article 5 of the Cuban Constitution.^[24]

In 1965, the 26th of July Movement, Popular Socialist Party, and 13th of March Revolutionary Directorate were all merged into a single Communist Party under Fidel Castro.^[25] All other political parties^[25] were dissolved and banned.^[22] For decades, no opposition candidates were permitted to stand for office.^[23] Campaigning is not permitted in elections in Cuba; rather, photographs and biographies of candidates are publicly posted.^[26] In 2015, two dissident candidates (one independent, and one member of the outlawed Independent and Democratic Cuba Party founded by Huber Matos) stood for election to a Havana local council, the first openly declared opposition candidates to seek office since 1959.^[23][26] However, both were defeated.^[23][26]

Comments[]

Cuba[]

Poster urging citizens to vote

Fidel Castro made many statements affirming that Cuba is a democracy or has democratic features.^[27] In 1960, Castro made a speech to the General Assembly referring to Cuba in relation to other Latin American nations, “We are speaking of democracy. If Government is of people and democratic, people can be consulted, as we are doing here. What is more an example of pure democracy than meetings such as this one. If they cannot call such meetings they are not democracies.” Castro continued “Those who want to see people’s democracy let them come here and see this. We can speak to America and the world because we speak in names of a whole nation.” In this 1960 speech, Castro also criticized many Latin American liberal democracies, describing them as a “Pretense of democracy”, as, he claimed, they did not allow such gatherings.^[28]

In 2006, President of Cuba's National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, stated: "At some moment, US rhetoric changed to talk of democracy ... For me, the starting point is the recognition that democracy should begin with Pericles's definition – that society is for the benefit of the majority – and should not be imposed from outside."^[29]

Cuba justifies the existence of only one political party by arguing that the PCC “is not a political party in the traditional sense… it is not an electoral party; it does not decide on the formation or composition of the government. It is not only forbidden to nominate candidates but also to be involved in any other stage of the electoral process… The PCC’s role is one of guidance, supervision and of guarantor of participatory democracy.”^[30]

The Cuban government describes the full Cuban electoral process as a form of democracy. The Cuban Ministry of External Affairs describes the candidate-selection process as deriving from “direct nomination of candidates for delegates to the municipal assemblies by the voters themselves at public assemblies,” and points out that at the elections to the municipal assemblies, voters do have a choice of candidates. The ban on election campaigning is presented as “The absence of million–dollar election campaigns where resorting to insults, slander and manipulation are the norm.”^{[citation needed]}

United States[]

U.S. State Department: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: "Candidates for provincial and national office must be approved in advance by mass organizations controlled by the government. In practice a small group of leaders, under the direction of the president, selected the members of the highest policy-making bodies of the CP, the Politburo, and the Central Committee."

"In 2003 there were national elections in which 609 candidates were approved to compete for the 609 seats in the National Assembly. The CP was the only political party allowed to participate in the elections. A small minority of candidates did not belong formally to the CP but were chosen through the same government-controlled selection process. The government saturated the media and used government ministries, CP entities, and mass organizations to urge voters to cast a “unified vote” where marking one box automatically selected all candidates on the ballot form.

During the year there were elections for nearly 15 thousand local representatives to the municipal assemblies. After the first run-off election, the government reported that 96.6 percent of the electorate had voted. While the law allows citizens not to vote, CDRs often pressured neighborhood residents to cast ballots. According to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights, the government blacklisted those who did not vote. Although not a formal requirement, in practice CP membership was a prerequisite for high-level official positions and professional advancement."

European Union[]

Since 1996, official European Union policy towards Cuba has stated an objective "to encourage a process of transition to a pluralist democracy via constructive engagement with the Cuban Government." This goal is shared by all member states. The E.U. describes the Cuban decision-making process thus: "Elections for the National Assembly, where only candidates approved by the local authorities can partake, take place every five years. When the National Assembly, which meets twice-yearly, is not in session the 31-member Council of State wields legislative power. The Council of Ministers, through its 9-member executive committee, exercises executive and administrative power. Although the Constitution provides for independent judiciary, it explicitly subordinates it to the National Assembly and to the Council of State. Involvement in decision-making and implementation through non-political actors has been institutionalised through national organisations, linked to the Communist Party, representing farmers, youth groups, students, women, industrial workers, etc."

Organization of American States[]

Cuba was suspended from the Organization of American States (OAS) from 1962 to 2009. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an organ of the OAS, reported in 1997: “It should also be noted that the major criterion for preparing this report has been the lack of free elections in accordance with internationally accepted standards, thereby violating the right to political participation set forth in Article XX of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, which states textually that: Every person having legal capacity is entitled to participate in the government of his country, directly or through his representatives, and to take part in popular elections, which shall be by secret ballot, and shall be honest, periodic and free.”^[31]

"The nomination of candidates for election to the Municipal Assemblies is done by nominating assemblies, in which all voters are entitled to propose candidates. In practice, however, these district assemblies are usually organized by the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution or the Communist Party, which makes the selection of an opponent of the regime most unlikely.^[32]

Other organizations[]

In 1999, the U.S.-government funded organization Freedom House initiated “the Cuban Democracy Project”.^{[citation needed]} The project was set up to support and encourage Cuban independent journalists, human rights activists, independent political parties, trade unions, and other organizations. Freedom House is solely responsible for the objectives and planning of the project and for its administration.^[33] Freedom House has also given Cuba the lowest rating in its: “Freedom in the World 2005” report for political rights, and the lowest rating in its “electoral democracy” category.

The Freedom House 2005 report states: “Cubans cannot change their government through democratic means. Fidel Castro dominates the political system, having transformed the country into a one-party state with the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) controlling all governmental entities from the national to the local level. Castro is responsible for every appointment and controls every lever of power in Cuba in his various roles as president of the Council of Ministers, chairman of the Council of State, commander in chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), and first secretary of the PCC. In October 2002, some eight million Cubans voted in tightly controlled municipal elections. On January 19, 2003, an election was held for the Cuban National Assembly, with just 609 candidates - all supported by the regime - vying for 609 seats. All political organizing outside the PCC is illegal. Political dissent, spoken or written, is a punishable offense, and those so punished frequently receive years of imprisonment for seemingly minor infractions.”^[34]

In 2002 former U.S. President Jimmy Carter spoke in Havana with support from Human Rights Watch and representing the Carter Center. Whilst calling for democratic change, Carter also stressed that he was not using a U.S. definition of “democracy.” he explained that “the term is embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Cuba signed in 1948. It is based on some simple premises: all citizens are born with the right to choose their own leaders, to define their own destiny, to speak freely, to organize political parties, trade unions and non-governmental groups, and to have fair and open trials.”

The 2006 report from Human Rights Watch states: “Cuba remains a Latin American anomaly: an undemocratic government that represses nearly all forms of political dissent. President Fidel Castro, now in his forty-seventh year in power, shows no willingness to consider even minor reforms. Instead, his government continues to enforce political conformity using criminal prosecutions, long- and short-term detentions, mob harassment, police warnings, surveillance, house arrests, travel restrictions, and politically-motivated dismissals from employment. The end result is that Cubans are systematically denied basic rights to free expression, association, assembly, privacy, movement, and due process of law.”^[35]

Human Rights defenders in Cuba from Human Rights First states: “Cuba remains the only country in the Western Hemisphere to reject democracy and effectively outlaw peaceful advocacy for human rights and democratic reforms. Independent civil society in Cuba – including human rights defenders, democracy activists, and independent journalists and scholars – are the targets of constant persecution. The universally-recognized rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly are systematically violated by the State and victims have virtually no means of redress within the judicial system.”^[36]

Cuba's supporters argue that the Cuban system is more democratic than that used in multi-party democracies. The Cuba Solidarity Campaign, a group based in the United Kingdom, says: “Electoral candidates are not chosen by small committees of political parties… Instead the candidates are nominated individually by grass-roots organisations and by individual electors… The successful candidate is chosen by secret ballot. The Electoral Law of 1992 stipulates that delegates to the municipal and provincial assemblies and the 601 deputies to the National Assembly are all elected by popular suffrage using a secret ballot… Unlike the case in other states, which invariably criticize Cuba for being ‘undemocratic’, voter turn-out in Cuba is high. In April 2005, 97.7% of electors came out to vote for their deputies to the municipal assemblies.”^[37]

Critics argue that whatever the merits of the system for electing the National Assembly, that body is itself a facade for the reality of PCC rule in Cuba. The Assembly meets only twice a year for a few days which is the basis of these beliefs. The 31-member Council of State, in theory elected by the Assembly but hypothetically in practice appointed by the PCC, wields effective state power, and the PCC Politburo is assumed to be the ultimate political authority. Although the Assembly has eight standing committees, they do not exercise any effective authority over legislation. During its biannual plenums, the Assembly is said to play a passive role as audience for various government speakers. Once the Council of State's legislative proposals have been presented, they are summarily ratified by unanimous or near unanimous vote of the Assembly.^[38]

Political figures[]

Many other notable political figures have commented on Cuba and democracy. At a conference held by the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba called “Towards democracy in Cuba”, former Czech leader Václav Havel stated, “democracy and prosperity in Cuba depend on the support for Cuban dissidents, the better the chances for a future peaceful transition of the Cuban society to democracy.”^[39] Havel has also described Cuba as “the biggest prison on earth”.^{[This quote needs a citation]} In 2006 Peruvian Presidential candidate and Bolivarian Ollanta Humala stated that “Obviously, according to our standards Cuba does not qualify as a democracy,” but added that Peru “is democratic, we have democratized poverty”.^[40]

Political writers and academics[]

Groups or individuals that describe Cuba is a “democracy” or claim that there is some level of democracy in the political system generally focus on community participation at local municipal level. For example, Cuban Teresita Jorge writes that democracy in Cuba “takes place from the grassroots up in the selection of those who will represent the people at all the levels of government“.^[41] Similarly, Political scientists Haroldo Dilla Alfonso and Gerardo González Núñez study what they describe as Cuba's “community power and grassroots democracy”. They write that “this participatory system contained an interesting combination of direct democracy and the use of representation as granted by election. In general, it attempted to provide citizens with the ability to choose the local leadership, express claims, oversee and evaluate local policy and its results, and become involved in projects of community benefit.” The pair concluded that “we ought to consider Municipal Assemblies as a remarkable step forward in building democracy”.^[42]

American political scientist Peter Roman's work on the subject led him to believe that Cuba's “grassroots democracy” goes beyond the power to vote freely for one of several candidates representing both pro or anti-socialist positions. He argues that at the “people level” democracy exists in Cuba today and that this democracy has been strengthened during the 1990s by conscious decisions made at the top. Roman also writes that the historical origins of contemporary Cuban democracy are the ideas of the centrality of unity and consensus, and the rejection of a distinction between political and civil society. Thus, unanimous votes in representative bodies do not represent, as critics charge, imposition by the PCC, but rather legitimate consensus worked out in lengthy discussion at several levels.^[43] British political professor Steve Ludlum wrote in his paper “Participation is key to Cuba’s democracy” that “Two models of democracy competed for support in nineteenth century Europe. The one we know is based on indirect representation by professional politicians controlled by party factions. The other model, associated with Rousseau’s concept of the ‘general will’ and made famous by the Paris Commune of 1870”. Ludlum likens Cuba's local participation to the latter model.^[44]

William M. LeoGrande, in a paper written for the Cuba Transition Project at the at the University of Miami, wrote of the 1992 election law: "unprecedented openness in debate, not just among party members, but also among the entire populace, so as to foster greater participation and build 'the necessary consensus' for the government's policy response...Eventually, some three million people participated in the pre-Congress discussions", but "When the new electoral law was finalized… it dashed any hopes for a significant opening to alternative voices. The ban on campaigning was retained, and the nomination of provincial and national assembly candidates was entrusted to Candidacy Commissions. Through an elaborate process of consultation… the Candidacy Commissions… produced slates of nominees with just one candidate per seat. Voters only had the choice of voting yes or no. Thus, the election process at the provincial and national levels avoided the possibility of even implicit policy differences among candidates.”^[45]

In a detailed study of the 1997-1998 elections, it was argued that there were multiple candidates in the open nomination assemblies held for the nomination of these candidates for these seats.^[46]

See also[]

• Communist state
• Cuban dissident movement
• One-party state
• Liaena Hernandez Martínez

References[]

External links[]

• Media related to Elections in Cuba at Wikimedia Commons
• Background Note: Cuba