Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel (centre) waiting in line to vote at a polling station in Santa Clara during the country’s legislative election
HAVANA, March 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Turnout for Cuba’s parliamentary elections at the weekend was almost 76 percent, the national electoral commission said on Monday, an increase on the two previous votes.
All 470 candidates were successfully elected to the 470 seats in the National Assembly, though the communist government does not allow opposition candidates to mount a challenge.
What was in question in the vote was the rate of abstention. Cubans can refuse to participate in elections to show dissatisfaction with their government.
The official turnout number was comfortably above the 68.5 percent that voted in last November’s municipal elections.
It was also a slight increase on the 74 percent who turned out for a referendum on a new family code in September.
However, it was some way off the 90 percent turnout for the 2019 referendum on a new constitution.
The 470 lawmakers — 263 women and 207 men — will now serve a five-year term.
Voters had two choices on their ballots: they could tick the names of any number of individual candidates, or otherwise select the “vote for all” option.
Candidates needed a minimum of 50 percent to be elected.
Alina Balseiro, president of the electoral commission, said 72 percent of voters selected the vote for all option.
As many as eight million eligible voters selected from the 470 candidates on the ballot — 263 women and 207 men — are vying for the 470 seats in the congress.
Cuba’s communist government does not allow opposition, so most parliamentary candidates are members of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).
Washington has imposed sanctions on the island nation since 1962, three years after the communist revolution that saw Fidel Castro take power after overthrowing US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel is among the candidates, as is his predecessor, 91-year-old Raul Castro.
“With the united vote we defend the unity of the country, the unity of the revolution, our future, our socialist constitution,” said Diaz-Canel, 62, after voting in Santa Clara, 280 kilometers southeast of Havana. — NNN-AGENCIES
