[NYTr] How Cuba Runs Its Elections

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


Cuban Elections in Two Periods

By Angel Rodriguez Alvarez
AIN Special Service

With the implementation of the Socialist Constitution in 1976 up until 
today, Cuba has held a dozen elections, each characterized by 
transparency, growing organization and increasing participation by the 
public. On each of the occasion, over 80 percent of the country's 
citizens have participated in assemblies to nominate candidates, tens 
of thousands voluntarily and freely participated in the organization of 
each step of the process, and over 95 percent placed their ballot in 
the urn.

However, there has been a great difference in the history of the 
island?s elections, since they were first held in the so-called 
"Republic" in 1901 up until the last one held under the principle of a 
multi-party system, in November 1958 organized by dictator Fulgencio 
Batista. In those 57 years, three institutional extensions of powers 
were executed, a military intervention (1906-1909) and another in 
mid-1933, both under the eye of the US, not to mention four coups - all 
organized by the White House. Without exception, electoral fraud, in 
one way or another, was always present. During this period, no 
president, except Tomas Estrada Palma in 1905, became president with 
more than 50 percent of the vote.  Ramon Grau, for example, who was 
popular in 1944 was elected with 44.71 percent and only surpassed by 
Fulgencio Batista with 45.61 percent in a fraudulent and scandalous 
election of 1954, in which of course he was the only candidate after 
the sudden withdrawal of Grau. Batista, we must highlight, was 
"Washington's Man in Cuba" for 25 years, between 1934 and 1959. During 
the 1940's the country had 13 political parties, in their majority 
little more than true caricatures without any difference between each 
other, neither ideologically or in their programs.

This was the disorderly and opportunistic conduct of a half a dozen 
traditional parties in the months following Fulgencio Batista?s coup 
detat in March 1952, incapable of stopping the consolidation of the de 
facto regime and is legalization through elections two years later. 
Contrary to the national interests was the behavior of these same 
parties in the period close to the triumph of the Revolution, in 
January of 1959.

Although representatives of some of those organizations initially 
served on the Council of Ministers and held other important 
responsibilities in the Provisional Revolutionary Government, they did 
not take long to withdraw after measures taken by the new government to 
recover the country's national resources and defend the sovereignty and 
independence of the island. A group of those belonging to institutions 
left for the US, adopted anti-Cuba positions and offered their services 
to a foreign power.  Those parties were left without a leadership and 
lost their scarce social base due to their confrontation with the 
Revolution. We must recall that only those parties directly linked with 
the dictatorship, accomplices to horrendous crimes and looting of the 
public treasures were ever suppressed through a law that ousted those 
parties.   The rest simply self-excluded themselves from the process. 
To this embarrassing practice, enriched by the US elections of 2000, 
those who want to return to Cuba one day --under the leadership of 
George W. Bush-- do not know the validity of the current Cuban 
electoral system. In reference to this, the Bush Plan proposes: 
"Creating and strengthening, with the support and assistance of the 
United States, a democratic electoral system to draft and reform the 
electoral laws and train electoral officials in issues like voter 
registration, maintenance of electoral census and voting procedures."

Adding to this ridiculous plan, it states, "The US government will 
offer assistance in planning new multi party elections and will use the 
Manual for Elections in a Cuba Under Transition of the USAID of 1998."