Cuba/Elections: Criticism from Within

Cuba/Elections: Criticism from Within
February 14, 2013
Fernando Ravsberg*

HAVANA TIMES — Cuba has just concluded its general elections, and in
their wake is the reflection of Guillermo Rodriguez, a revolutionary
intellectual who is questioning some aspects of his country's electoral
system and is calling for more and better opportunities for participation.

Rodriguez is critical of there being no election campaigns in Cuba. "Not
only do we not finance political campaigns, but we don't even have
political campaigns. Perhaps it's because those are associated with
'politicking' – where candidates promise things they know they can't
deliver."

He recalls that prior to 1959 the island politicians would lie to the
electorate to win their votes – as is the case today in other countries.
However, the Cuban intellectual believes that "eliminating political
campaigns in order to eliminate politicking is like throwing out the
baby with the bathwater."

"In Cuba, all candidate promotion and ads are banned. All that's
permitted is a brief biography of the candidate along with a small ID
photo."

Nonetheless, Rodriguez insists that citizens are "interested more in
knowing what each candidate proposes to do as a deputy or what their
projects would be as a legislator."

Another criticism expressed in the article has to do with the district
representation that parliament should observe. Many deputies are elected
to represent places they haven't lived in for decades – and in some
cases they've never lived there.

"It's absurd for there to be a deputy from Sagua de Tanamo who hasn't
visited the town in a year," maintains the intellectual. He argues that
a deputy to parliament "should know the problems, deficiencies, and
needs of their region and their constituents, and they need to address
those through legislation."

"The economy is crying for decentralizing; the country needs a political
life," he said. "Little or no attention is paid to the Cuban legislators
since they can't address the problems that affect and sometimes
overwhelm their constituents."

To make matters worse, the image portrayed for decades on Cuban TV has
been that of a parliament that limits itself to unanimously "legalizing"
each of the measures announced by the executive.

Cubans have never seen a deputy questioning a ministerial or executive
report.

Electors in Cuba must vote for their representatives from a list that
indicates a single candidate for each position. The citizen doesn't have
the option of choosing between one candidate or another. The most they
can do is not vote for those they don't like.

Consequently, Rodriguez says, "If the voter doesn't have anyone to
select from, the (Candidature) Commission is the entity that determines
the makeup of the Assembly (…) In practice, it's the Candidature
Committee that elects the deputies."

He also questions the inclusion of 50 percent of the candidates not
being elected (at the local level) by the public. "That's too much, when
in fact most of them are government officials. I think it diminishes the
critical capacity of the National Assembly to assess the performance of
government."

Given this, he proposes a rather moderate change. He suggests Cuban
parliament increase its representativeness by including "individuals of
recognized prestige and those without commitments to the government,
though they could be members of the Communist Party."

Rodriguez concludes his article asserting that "the adoption of these
measures would significantly expand the democratic nature of our
elections and thus strengthen the links between the public and their
representatives. It would do us good."

Apparently he's not the only one who thinks this way. His analysis was
reproduced in several leftist Cuban blogs, including Segunda Cita, by
singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez.

Apparently, now the criticism is coming from within the revolution, and
it's being expressed by those who continue to support socialism.
—–
(*) An authorized HT translation of the original published by BBC Mundo.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=87730#comment-802119023