Canadian author Arnold August is currently in Havana, investigating and attending electoral activities regarding the current elections for deputies to the National Assembly of People’s Power (Parliament) and for delegates to the Provincial Assemblies. He was also in Cuba last September for most of the first phase of these general elections for delegates to the Municipal Assemblies. Simultaneously with this work, he is also carrying out extensive interviews, discussions and research concerning Cuba’s People’s Power: how it operates at all levels between elections, from the Parliament to the Municipal Assemblies to the People’s Councils within the Municipal Assembles. This and other collateral research is being carried out towards his forthcoming book entitled Cuba: Participatory Democracy and Elections in the 21st Century. To be released in 2009 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban revolution, it will be published first in English followed by Spanish and French in the same year. (January 20, 2008)

His first book was published in 1999 and entitled Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 Elections.

Elections in Cuba:
Meeting with the National Candidacy Commission
by Arnold August
January 19, 2008
Havana, Cuba

Last week I met with the National Candidacy Commission as well as the Municipal Candidacy Commission for the Plaza de la Revolucion municipality in Havana where I am carrying out my basic field research. I have already dealt with in some detail how the nomination procedure takes place in the neighbourhoods. Basically the citizens have the right to nominate from amongst their neighbours those citizens who they think who should be elected to the Municipal Assembly. A show of hands vote than takes place if there are more than one person proposed, and the person who gets the most votes is thus nominated from that nomination zone. There are normally several nomination zones for each electoral district in the Municipality. All those who are nominated are then elected through universal, secret suffrage, with at least two and a maximum of eight candidates on the ballot. Voters have the right to choose the one they judge is best.

What is the equivalent of this procedure on the national level, for the Parliament? How are candidates for deputies nominated? Unlike the municipal elections, there is only one candidate per seat in the parliament. When I met with the National Candidacy Commission 10 years ago in 1998 and once again last week, while also carrying out on the spot observations I have come once again to the same conclusion, but I believe in a much more profound way.

During the course of the lively exchange and discussion last week at the headquarters of the National Candidacy Commission it seemed to me that the entire procedure of consultation led by the national, provincial and municipal candidacy commissions is the equivalent of the local municipal neighbourhood nomination meetings but on the national level with the goal of proposing candidates to the national assembly.

To summarize very briefly because everything will be laid out in full detail in my forthcoming book:

Firstly, those who compose the candidacy commissions at all levels are elected representatives of the six main mass organisation in Cuba, headed by the workers’ trade union central and including representatives of the five other mass organizations: women, small farmers, CDR (local neighbourhood committees), university students and high school students (16 to 18 years of age in Cuba).

Secondly, all the mass organizations at all three levels (national, provincial and municipal) have the right to propose people as pre-candidates from amongst the population from all walks of life.

Thirdly, at the Municipal level, the Candidacy Commission works with the Municipal Assembly to nominate pre-candidates from amongst those who have been elected as Municipal candidates in the first stage of these general elections last October. Keep in mind that according to the Cuban law, up to 50 % of the deputies and provincial delegates must be pre-candidates coming from the elected Municipal assembly delegates, nominated and elected as explained briefly above.

This year, according to last week’s interview with the Commission, the input coming out of this massive consultation during the first three steps outlined above, had resulted in a list of no less than 62,900 suggestions for pre-candidates.

Fourthly, candidacy commissions then carried out a massive consultation involving over 2.5 people in their work places and neighbourhoods where these pre-candidates live and work in order to get grass roots opinions from the base on whether the proposed individuals are worthy or no to work in the Peoples Power.

Fifthly, each individual elected municipal delegate is consulted privately to collect their respective opinion on those proposed for their municipality.

Through very intensive work at all levels (upon questioning, the national commission members told me that they worked for many months for 6, 7 days a week, at time to 3 or 4 in the morning) in order to bring the list of more than 62, 000 nominees to the number of deputies required for the national Assembly, that is 614 as well as for all the provincial assemblies.

Sixthly, it is the municipal assemblies where the pre-candidates are assigned to run for elections which have to approve the list proposed by the candidate commission. The municipal delegates have the right to refuse one of more candidates, which happens from time to time and the candidacy commission in these cases has to propose another. Once the list is finalised, the pre-candidates become candidates.

The final step takes place tomorrow, January 20, when the voters have the final say. Each candidate has to get at least 50% of the valid votes in order to be elected. Last week I had asked one of the candidates for the provincial assembly from the Plaza de la Revolucion Municipality if she was nervous about the vote that is whether she would get 50%. The recently elected Municipal delegate confided that in fact she was worried, not because any prestige or privilege was at stake (there are no privileges, only more hard voluntary work at the same salary) in being elected provincial delegate. Her apprehension was to avoid disappointing her work mates, neighbours, mass organisation colleagues in the union and women’s federation and fellow municipal delegates all of whom had all showed confidence in her. She simply did not want to let them down. So the 50% (even though no one has yet lost an election) is still present in the minds of many candidates.

However, the main point I would like to make tonight only a few hours before the polls open early tomorrow morning, is the following: in my opinion, the entire work of the candidacy commissions at all levels and in conjunctions with the mass organisations, the municipal assembly delegates and the citizens in the work places and neighbourhoods, all of this consists of a nomination procedure that is at least as valid that the local nomination meetings. It is even superior in some respects. I find that it is very professional. Those involved have to make sure that the society is to be represented in the Parliament.

Let us take one example, the increase of the number of women deputies. While explaining to me very carefully that the Candidacy Commissions do not believe in any quota system, they attempt to increase the number of women in the People’s Power. They take into account first and foremost qualities that would make for a good deputy, also considered is profession or work so that all walks of life are presented, age, skin color, but also, and in this context gender. And so tomorrow evening Cuba, according to the National Candidacy Commission, may be ranked number six in the world as far as the number of women deputies that is 43.16% of the deputies, 7% more than the previous elections in 2003 - just some food for thought as to the role of the candidacy commission in nominating candidates.