Party Time, Excellent: Cuba Holds Elections for a New National Assembly

With Sunday’s local elections fast approaching, Cuban voters fight off overwhelming apathy to choose which municipal council members will eventually make it to the National Assembly in March. Ninety-five percent of the voting population is expected to turn out in order to pick among candidates chosen by the island’s Committees to Defend the Revolution. Candidates include a communist, a communist and some other communists, and like one or two other people. Who are probably also communists.

This year marks the first time the elections will be held without Fidel’s influence taking center stage, due to the aging dictator’s deteriorating health and general super oldness. Nonetheless, the ideals of the Revolution remain alive and well within the hearts and minds of hopeful communists:

“We are young and fresh, the relievers, ready to guarantee that the Revolution continues,” said Jose Angel Garcia, 41, a carpenter who repairs doors and shutters of schools in dilapidated central Havana, Cuba’s most crowded district.

The Cuban government maintains its electoral system is among the most democratic in the world, as votes cannot be bought off. Then again, the same is true for bread, medicine and basic household appliances on the island. But who are we to quibble.

No campaigns, only one party in Cuban elections [Reuters]
Image [Google]