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Havana (AFP) – Cubans vote on Sunday to renew the parliament for five years, in a vote without surprises, in which 470 candidates for deputies present themselves to occupy the same number of seats, and with abstentionism as the only enemy to defeat.
Eight million Cubans over the age of 16 are summoned to vote for the 470 candidates for deputies -263 women and 207 men- for the National Assembly of People’s Power. Most of the candidates belong to the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), the only legal party on the island.
The 23,600 polling stations opened quietly at 07:00 local (11:00 GMT) and will close at 18:00 (22:00 GMT).
In Cuba (11.1 million inhabitants), where opposition parties are prohibited, voting is not compulsory.
Voters will find two possibilities on the ballot: the name of each candidate from their district or the option to vote “for all”, which implies supporting the 470.
The “vote for all” is a united suffrage to reaffirm “socialism” and the “revolution”, say the authorities. But it would also help candidates to reach more than 50% of the valid votes in the day, a requirement to be elected.
The legislative votes are part of a process that will culminate this year with the election of the President of the Republic, in which President Miguel Díaz-Canel, 62, could be re-elected, the first to lead the country after Fidel Castro and his brother Raul
Among the candidates are Díaz-Canel and the retired Raúl Castro.
The vote occurs at a time when Cuba is going through the worst economic crisis in three decades, with galloping inflation, an unprecedented wave of migration, caused by the effects of the pandemic and the US economic embargo, as well as by the structural weaknesses of the country.
Electoral participation fell in recent years to its lowest levels since the entry into force of the current electoral system of 1976.
In the November municipal elections, abstention was 68.5%, lower than that of the referendums for the Family Code (74.12%), in September, and for the Constitution (90.15%), in 2019 .
The candidates, led by Díaz-Canel, have carried out an unusual and intense proselytizing campaign in recent weeks to listen to the demands of the population.
Without an authorized opposition, the calls to abstain were concentrated in the social networks.
“Do not be part of this farce. Expel the usurpers from power. Do not go to vote on Sunday,” published the Twitter account “Cuba says No to the dictatorship.”
