On Sunday, March 11, 2011, Cuba held elections for the National
Assembly of Popular Power. Some 82.9% of the more than 8 million eligible
voters, citizens sixteen year of age or older, cast their ballots, electing
605 deputies. The national assembly is the highest political authority in
the nation. In addition to enacting legislation, it elects the executive
branch of the government, which consists of the thirty-one members of the
Council of State, including the President.
The Cuban political system of popular democracy has been in place
since 1976. It was developed as an alternative to representative
democracy, which was discredited in Cuba during the republic of 1902-1959. The
Cuban electoral process begins with neighborhood nomination assemblies,
typically open-air affairs in the street, where the people put forth names
of potential candidates. From this process emerges, in each of the 12,515
voting districts, two or three candidates for deputy in one of 169
municipal assemblies. Accordingly, in each voting district, in a secret
vote, the people elect one of the two or three candidates to the municipal
assembly. This year, the voting for municipal assembly was conducted on
November 26, with 85% voter turnout; and runoff elections were held on
December 3.
Once constituted, the municipal assemblies approve a slate of
candidates for the fifteen provincial assemblies as well as the National
Assembly. The slates are proposed to the municipal assemblies by candidacy
commissions composed of and self-selected by six mass organizations, which
are independent of the government, and which elect their own leaders. The
ratification of the slates by the people, in a direct and secret vote, is
what occurred in the elections of March 11.
Of the 605 deputies elected to the National Assembly on May 11, some
53% are women; 41% are blacks or mulattos; 13% are between eighteen and
thirty-five years of age; 86% are college graduates; and 56% are first-term
deputies, and 24% have completed only one term. They represent all areas
of work, including industry, agriculture, heath, science, and education.
For further description of the Cuban political process, please see
pages 130-42 of my book, *The Evolution and Significance of the Cuban
Revolution: The Light in the Darkness* (London: Palgrave Macmillan,
2018). Find
it at:
http://www.globallearning-cuba.com/a-new-book-on-cuba-and-the-world-system-by-charles-mckelvey.html
Charles McKelvey
Professor Emeritus
Presbyterian College
Clinton, South Carolina
Section on Political Science from the South
Division of Philosophy and History
University of Havana
Havana, Cuba
