This
figure endorses the principles and democratic vocation governing
suffrage in Cuba, which is acknowledged by citizens and expressed by
them by way of their notable participation.
The experience of 13 previous electoral processes, since 1976,
indicates that over 90% of Cubans with the right to vote goes to the
polls, a percentage hard to match in any other country in the world.
In the United States, ideologists, leaders and the press boast about
impeccable democracy when, actually, the high abstentionism marks
the great distrust and indifference of citizens with the right to
vote.
The policy of openness of Cuban electoral processes encourages the
confidence of the people towards its political system.
As of March 27, the photographs and biographies of nominees will be
posted in public places in each electoral district, so voters who
don’t know them can have sufficient information to be able t form an
opinion and vote for the right person for this job, according to his
or her merits and virtues.
We should also bear in mind that until a weeks days the Identity
Card offices throughout the country, with the support of the
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, updated electoral
registers in the neighborhoods.
It was an essential step in view of the fact that deaths, transfers
of citizens to other places and the incorporation of new voters may
have occurred in one year. In the current process 320,000 youngsters
have acquired their right to suffrage and have been incorporated to
the Electoral Roll.
We’re talking about a document that, I other nations causes not a
few disputes between political parties contending for power. To
begin with, it’s kept in absolute secrecy for reasons that are
always dark, while in Cuba it’s of public knowledge, as reflected in
the country’s Constitution.
Prisoners, deceased persons or ghost are not included in the
register, as it happens in other parts of the world, where money,
thirst for power and concealment are the order of the day.
It’s a document to which citizens older than 16 years of age are
incorporated and to which, in many nations, their inhabitants gain
access by way of payments, favors and other dirty tricks.