The official line was that Cuban voters had delivered an expression of mass participatory democracy. But, while it is true that any other government in Latin America would be envious of voter turnout of 91.9%, in Cuba it is a serious disappointment. One vote attracted particular attention. Cuba’s spiritual leader Fidel Castro cast his vote, albeit by proxy. He also penned a stinging rebuttal in the self-proclaimed Communist party mouthpiece Granma of speculation in the foreign press that he might be dead or dying, complete with photographic proof of life.
Of the more than 8.5m Cubans eligible to vote in municipal elections on 21 October, 91.9% did so, according to the national election commission (CEN). The turnout in the last municipal elections, in April 2010, was 94.7%, or 8.4m.
Cuba’s municipal elections are the country’s only direct elections by secret ballot, albeit only the Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) is entitled to compete and candidates have to be nominated in neighbourhood meetings in their respective constituencies by raised hand, under the attentive eye of party stalwarts, thus ensuring a tight control over the process.
The dissident opposition argues that this process makes a mockery of free elections as candidates are not permitted to campaign and the only thing voters know about them is a short biography compiled by the CEN - made up of members of the PCC - and a photograph in the voting centres.
Voters elected a total of 14,537 delegates from just over twice as many candidates to positions on 168 municipal assemblies. There will be a second round on 28 October for those candidates who failed to win 50% of the vote. These were the 15th municipal elections, held every two and a half years since the organs of popular power were established in 1976.
Rubén Pérez, secretary of the CNE, argued that the elections were the consummate example of mass participatory democracy as “no delegate represents any political interest, only society itself”. Dissidents contend that precisely because no delegate can represent any political interest other than the PCC, or campaign on any issue not endorsed by the party, the elections are a sham.
During the PCC conference on 28 January, President Raúl Castro called for more open debate in the media and more democracy within the PCC and society, such as elections to management committees for instance, but he made it clear that Cuba would remain a one-party state. “All those Cubans who love their country and respect it can find space in the PCC,” he said, adding that the single party system was a legacy of the “permanent aggression, economic blockade, interference and media siege” the Revolution had endured from the US.
The municipal elections are only the first stage in general elections which become progressively less participatory at each subsequent stage, when the elections become indirect. The municipal assemblies wield no real power; their principal role is to elect deputies to provincial and national assemblies but they can only choose from a slate of candidates compiled by a commission composed of senior party loyalists of the ‘organisations of the masses’, which is ultimately presided over by members of the PCC central committee. During this process, which will take place in early 2013, 50% of the deputies to the provincial and national assemblies will be chosen from the 14,537 delegates; the other 50% from a list of revolutionary celebrities.
The national assembly, which meets just twice a year for a few days, merely rubberstamps government initiatives and selects the 31-member council of state and the council of ministers, presided over by Castro. This is where real political power is concentrated – and at this stage of the electoral process not only are the elections indirect but they also only involve the elected deputies who are sure to be the most unswerving loyalists.
Fidel in rude health
President Castro was the first to vote in the municipal elections - at dawn. His brother Fidel also voted - by proxy. Fidel burst back into the news the day before the elections, when he entertained the recently replaced Vice-President of Venezuela, Elías Jaua. He also wrote an article in Granma berating “organs of information, almost all of which are in the hands of the privileged and the rich” and maintaining that he had stopped publishing his ‘Reflections’ with such regularity (the last came out in June) “because it certainly is not my role to occupy the pages of our newspaper”.
Castro concluded that “I don’t even remember what a headache is. To show what liars they are, I’m offering these photos to accompany this article.” The photos showed a frail but resolute Fidel clutching in his hand a copy of Granma, dated 19 October. Jaua also produced a photo in which he can be seen smiling with Fidel and others for assembled journalists in the Hotel Nacional in Havana. He said he had spent five hours talking about “agriculture, history and international politics” with a “very well, very lucid” Fidel.
“D” for democracy
Cuba’s dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez uploaded to Twitter a picture of her ballot slip upon which she had written in indelible ink - “Democracy”. While she was defying the current political system, the former diplomat, historian and Communist party cardholder, Pedro Campos, led a campaign to persuade Cubans to write “D” on their ballot slips to demand “democratic socialism”.
Campos, one of the leaders of Socialismo Participativo y Democrático (SPD), said it was important to take President Castro at his word when he called for “more democracy for the party and society” at last January’s party conference. He said that far from constituting dissidence this “D” would amount to revolutionary affirmative action.
Campos argued that Cuba’s “stagnant” revolutionary process needed to learn from Venezuela’s recent elections, which had cemented “democratic socialism”. He called for the introduction of direct elections for president and vice-president; respect for the political and economic rights of Cubans, especially freedom of expression, association and movement; and the concept of the popular referendum on laws affecting all citizens.
Oswaldo Payá, one of the most prominent dissidents in Cuba and leader of the Movimiento Cristiano Liberación before his death in a car crash on 22 July, argued that there was nothing to be gained from casting any ballot. Two days before his death, Payá wrote a piece entitled ‘There are no free elections without free men and women’. “(The vote) is not free and therefore it is totally senseless participating in any way in elections which contradict democracy,” Payá argued.
Separately, Angel Carromero, a Spanish political activist, was sentenced by a Cuban provincial court last week to four years in prison for the deaths of Payá and a colleague, Harold Cepero. Carromero was behind the wheel of a rental car in the eastern province of Granma when it spun off the road and hit a tree, claiming the lives of the two men. He was found guilty of manslaughter from dangerous driving. A front seat passenger, Jens Aron Modig, a Swedish youth political activist, was allowed to return home after being held for one week after the accident, after he apologised for “illicit activities” and allegedly giving Payá €4,000 (US$4,900) from his Christian Democratic party.
- Importance of the vote
The president of the national electoral commission (CNE), Alina Balseiro, had exhorted Cubans not to “forget the times the country is experiencing”. She said it was more important than ever for Cubans to vote en masse after last year’s Communist party congress and last January’s party conference, and the publishing of the ‘Economic and social policy guidelines’.
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