Cuba will hold national elections on March 26, in a scenario full of economic, social and political challenges.
Cubans will elect 470 members of the National People’s Power Assembly (Parliament), who will not only the responsibility of legislating, but also of choosing the President and Vice President of the Republic, among other powers, hence the importance of these elections.
However, it is no secret to anyone that phenomena such as inflation, shortages, the difficulties of the national power system and economic deficiencies mark Cubans’ reality in a negative way, which could have repercussions on attendance at polling stations.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel himself recognized this, when in September 2022, the country decided to move forward with a popular referendum to approve the new Family Code, although electricity cuts affected the population and paralyzed industries, while they did not stop external campaigns calling to sabotage the process.
At that time, he affirmed that continuing with the elections was a sign of the value and transparency of the Revolution, and the result showed that citizens went to the polls in more than 74 percent and finally voted for Yes by 66.85. percent.
The context that time is very similar to the current one, also marked by the crisis resulting from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic blockade imposed by the United States for more than six decades and affecting all spheres of life in the country.
That is precisely what this policy is about, as US Vice Secretary of State Lester Mallory made it clear in April 1960, when he expressed in a memorandum the intention of using economic asphyxiation as a mechanism of pressure to cause unrest in the population and subvert the Revolution.
It is in this scenario that national elections will take place, which President Diaz-Canel recently described not only as an act of courage, but also as democracy, because it includes not violating the calendars established by the Constitution, regardless of the situations Cuba went through.
It is curious that a country that is constantly accused of not having democracy should implement an electoral exercise under adverse circumstances, risking abstention and a punishing vote, on which the adversaries bet and finance.
The challenge of making economy progress, despite external obstacles, is one of the key points for Cuba and its social project, as well as finding the path to prosperity, dignifying the value of work, the role of wages and that people find their fulfillment within national borders.
These are objectives that, beyond appearing in the vision of the country by 2030, need to be materialized in facts, as they account for a process committed to offering citizens greater social justice.
That is why, both the economy and attention to people and communities in vulnerable situations constitute the main lines of action of the Government, which, far from sitting back and contemplating the panorama, has gone out to seek solutions in international agreements, production, and the science and innovation. It is also the fight against cultural colonization, an essentially political phenomenon, because it is about converting capitalist ideals and precepts into the yardstick to measure all things, the absolute truth that leaves no room for other ways of doing or thinking.
“Cuban socialist democracy has before it the traces of cultural colonization imposed by the bourgeois liberal ideal,” said Yuleidis Gonzalez, a professor at the University of Granma, at a debate on the subject.
That is an essential challenge that requires a change of spirit, a new relationship with power, and making people feel that they have a real influence on decision-making, she added.
As Diaz-Canel said during his tours as a parliamentary candidate, it is about improving socialist democracy within the People’s Power concept, banishing bureaucracy from the mechanisms for citizens’ participation and through which decisions are made on the basis of their proposals, reviews and debates. (PL)
