7DaysinParadise
Cuba => Cuba => Topic started by: Gambitt on January 20, 2008, 09:47:04 AM
-
All Set in Cuba for Sunday’s Elections
A total of 8.4 million Cubans are eligible to vote Sunday to elect their provincial and national parliaments.
Election officials confirmed that all the voting material and election workers are ready to proceed with voting day with total efficiency and transparency.
Voters will elect 614 members of the national parliament and 1,202 for the provincial legislatures for a five year term.
More than 700 computers and 21,000 telephones are in place to transmit data and the election results, backed by support from Cuban radio and TV stations.
Now its up to the voters to exercise their right to vote at the more than 38,000 polling stations set up to receive them.
Registration lists, ballots and other election materials were already delivered to the polling places. Citizens in transit, workers indispensable for production and services, and those working at hospitals can vote outside their voting districts.
The list of candidates contains a wide diversity of Cubans including workers, outstanding intellectuals, sports greats, scientists, community leaders, and journalists, representatives of religious associations and members of the armed forces.
-
Cubans on Sunday ratified a slate of candidates, including Fidel Castro, for a new parliament that will decide whether the ailing 81-year-old will continue as head of state or be replaced by his younger brother Raul.
Only one candidate appeared on the ballot for each district post and no campaigning was allowed. The Communist party was the only party permitted to run in the election -- although membership is not a prerequisite to serve in the rubber-stamp legislature.
Cubans lined up before dawn in blustery weather to cast their ballots. Some 8.4 million voters are being asked to back 614 politicians, musicians and athletes for posts in the legislature, known as the National Assembly. Preliminary results are expected to be announced Monday afternoon.
The new parliament will meet Feb. 24 and announce a new Council of State, the country's supreme governing body, which Castro formally heads.
Castro, Cuba's unchallenged leader since 1959, last week wrote that he is too sick to campaign for re-election or to address the people in person. He has not been seen publicly for nearly 18 months and provisionally ceded power to his younger brother, Raul, in July 2006, following emergency intestinal surgeries.
Castro has remained the head of the Council of State and re-election to parliament makes him eligible to be named to the post again this year.
Cuban officials say Castro remains involved in government affairs, though apparently in an advisory role as day-to-day matters are handled by the Raul's caretaker government and other top officials.
Raul Castro, 76, was the first to cast his ballot when polls near Havana's Plaza of the Revolution opened at 7 a.m. He would not say if his brother wants to remain as head of state or retire permanently.
"We have to face different situations and great decisions," he said.
Recuperating in a secret location, Castro confirmed in a statement read on state television that he had voted, using a special ballot election officials had delivered.
When Cuba last voted for a new parliament in 2003, Castro voted in his district in the eastern city of Santiago, the only place his name appears on the ballot. Six weeks later, he was tapped by the newly chosen parliament for a sixth term atop the Council of State.
In December, Castro wrote in one of a series of essays published in state newspapers that he has no intention of clinging to power. But he also praised the example of a celebrated Brazilian architect who is still working at 100.
"We continue to see him as guide, master, moral inspiration," said Amelia Alvarez, a 52-year-old school administrator who voted in Cuba's capital.
Among those seeking re-election was National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon, who has said for months he will vote to keep Castro as head of the Council of State.
"You should have no doubt that he's ready," Alarcon told reporters. "He is in a position to continue that job, and the vast majority of Cuba will be more than happy (about that), myself included."
Washington dismisses Cuban elections as a farce, but Havana counters that its balloting is more democratic than most because those running are chosen by municipal leaders nominated during neighbourhood gatherings.
"Looking at the United States, it seems more like a popularity contest than elections," said Vice-President Carlos Lage. "These are elections without politics, without fraud, without money or propaganda campaigns, elections that are based on merit."
Did you see they had a 95% turnout? Thats unheard of in Canada or USA