Electoral Verses

Electoral Verses / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar
Posted on October 23, 2015

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, 23 October 2015 — Poet, teacher and literary
critic Guillermo Rodriguez Rivera has published an interesting article
about the Cuban electoral system in the blog Segunda Cita, managed by
the singer Silvio Rodriguez.

Rodriguez Rivera insists that the need for reform of the Cuban electoral
system is not unrelated to the rapprochement between the governments of
Cuba and the United States, and he is right. The Electoral Act has been
bad since its enactment in 1982 and should have been changed long
ago. Not, as Rodriguez Rivera says, because transforming it is a
necessity "that emanates from the process of updating our Socialist model."

"Today, in truth, we Cubans are not electing 612 deputies as members of
our National Assembly of People's Power," says the university professor,
although it would have been better to acknowledge that we never have
elected them. If there has never been an occasion in which one of those
proposed has been rejected for not accumulating 50% of the votes, it is
not because they are good or bad, but because the majority of the voters
don't really know who they are.

The poet recognizes that "it is the Candidate Commission that is really
electing our deputies; we voters do not do anything but ratify them" —
certainly a good point — but he does not have a clear proposal for how a
mechanism will work to convert a citizen into a candidate. He limits
himself to suggesting that "the other 50% will be personalities outside
the provincial assemblies, but proposed and approved by them as
candidates," so that the task of selecting half of the list will be
transferred from the Candidate Commission to the Provincial Assemblies.
The current political approach, that shapes an absolute majority in the
Provincial Assemblies, would be charged with perpetuating their hegemony
by choosing those who, in their judgment, are politically correct.

Rodriguez Rivera points out that "the rejection of the old politics has
motivated voters who are very disinformed with respect to the deputies
they elect." No Guillermo, it is not about a prejudice embedded in the 8
million voters in this country.

In the first place, "the old politics" is only understood in Cuba by
those who are 88 or older, who experienced first hand the last Cuban
elections, which occurred in 1948 (assuming the poet does not legitimate
the Batista farces) and, on the other hand, the current Electoral Law in
Article 171 establishes that "every voter is to consider, when
determining which candidate to vote for, only their personal
characteristics, their prestige and their capacity to serve the people."
Information that they must deduce from a photo and biographical data
that is posted and that, by the way, is not even drafted by the
candidate, but by the electoral commission of his or her district.

At the end of Article 171, in case it wasn't clear, it was specified
that, "Candidates can participate together in events, conferences and
workplace visits and exchange opinions with the workers which allows, at
the same time, for them to get to know the candidates personally,
without this being considered a campaign of election propaganda."

As there is always someone who does not fully understand the purposes of
a Revolutionary Law, in Article 172, in its first paragraph, it is
stated that it is a crime to violate the principles established in
Article 171.

The new electoral law must return to the political profession virtues
that have been snatched away. In a State of Law citizens must be able to
express themselves freely without fear of reprisals, and must have the
right to associate around their points of view.

The idea that the candidates come before the cameras to defend their
proposals is not sufficient if this right of presenting political
proposals is not extended to all points of view and under equal
conditions: Liberals, Social Democrats, Christian Democrats,
Environmentalists, Communists and others who appear in the rich Island
fantasia. And not just one month before the elections, but during the
entire year, and not exclusively in the provincial television studios
but also in whatever media exists.

The Candidate Commission has to go, along with the prohibition on
political campaigning. The voters must have the right to know how the
deputy they elect is going to vote on their behalf.

The president of the Republic must be elected by a direct vote of the
citizens and not in a parliamentary caucus.

Along with the Electoral Law, there must be a Law of Political Parties
proclaimed, and above all there is a need to convene a plural and
democratic Constituent Assembly to provide us with a modern
Constitution, in accord with the demands of the 21st century. All this
must be done because it is lacking, not because Fidel Castro has said
that the 'current model' "doesn't even work for us anymore," a phrase
which, moreover, has been ignored arguing that they had
interpreted it to the letter.

Source: Electoral Verses / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar | Translating Cuba
- http://translatingcuba.com/electoral-verses-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/