Fine, as long as we win

Fine, as long as we win
But in a big municipal poll, the losers also have something to celebrate
Apr 25th 2015

THE most interesting thing about Cuba's municipal elections on April
19th was not who won. It was who lost, and who did not even turn up.

Four months after a historic rapprochement between Cuba and the United
States, for the first time two openly declared dissidents made it onto
the ballot among more than 27,000 candidates competing for 12,589
municipal posts around the country. Predictably, they were defeated. But
their participation was an unusually open act of defiance, not just by
the two men but also by ordinary citizens who proposed them in a show of
hands before the elections.

What is more, the turnout on voting day fell by almost six percentage
points compared with the previous poll in 2012, to about 88%. Some
claimed rising absenteeism was a crack in monolithic support for the
Communist Party.

The opposition candidates, Hildebrando Chaviano, a lawyer and
journalist, and Yuniel López, a member of the unauthorised Independent
and Democratic Cuba party, were labelled as "counter-revolutionaries" in
official publicity. On his party's website, Mr López claims that voters
were pressured not to vote for him. Yet both candidates quickly conceded
defeat. "The vote was clean. The people don't want change. They still
want revolution," Mr Chaviano said.

The elections have an air of futility about them. The winning candidates
are rewarded with a thankless job. They face a barrage of complaints
from residents about crumbling housing and poor public services, without
having the power or money to do much about them. But voters know that if
they do not show up, it is likely to count against them—in university
applications, for instance.

All the same, many did not. Alina Balseiro, head of Cuba's National
Electoral Commission, said the drop in turnout reflected the absence of
tens of thousands of Cubans who had gone abroad as a result of Cuba's
relaxation of travel restrictions. But Yoani Sánchez, a dissident Cuban
blogger, said that 1.7m potential voters did not appear, or they cast
void or defaced ballots. This "demonstrated that support for the
government is not as unanimous as it claims."

Such dissidence comes at a delicate time for Raúl Castro, Cuba's
president. In September huge crowds will gather for the visit of Pope
Francis, whose office helped arrange the thaw in relations with the
United States. This could further heighten expectations of change.

Yet the Castro government may also feel that elections can be a useful
outlet—so long as the ruling party continues to win. Eusebio Mujal-Leon,
of Georgetown University in Washington, says it may be learning a warped
version of democracy from its socialist ally in Venezuela, convincing
itself that it can remain an autocracy while using elections to stay in
power. The road ahead for Cuba's nascent opposition is not an easy one.

Source: Elections in Cuba: Fine, as long as we win | The Economist -
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21649521-big-municipal-poll-losers-also-have-something-celebrate-fine-long-we-win