Cuba carries out trial voting to practice for governors’ elections

Those elections will be held on January 18 when every member of municipal governments will cast his/her vote on the candidates proposed by President Miguel Diaz-Canel, in a voting supervised by the National Electoral Council (CEN, in Spanish).

The introduction of governors in the Cuban political system complies with the new Constitution, approved last year by the majority vote of constituents. The post of governor was restablished after 60 years, following its removal at the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.

The CEN has been working since December preparing for these elections. Every detail leading up to the upcoming election will be checked on this trial, assured CEN’s President Alina Balseiro.

She explained that first they will verify conditions of places where the voting will take place, such as lighting, electrical backup, the existence of stamps, patriot symbols, as well as the required documentation; and then a practical test will be carried out.

Some 3,000 officials will participate in the poll, for which the computer system was also set up and updated.

Governors and vice governors, according to the new Constitution, are proposed by the President of the Republic Miguel Diaz-Canel. As part of several changes laid down by the Magna Carta, provincial assemblies will then disappear.

On Balseiro’s opinion that representatives of municipal assemblies, nominated and elected by the people, be the ones who elect governors and vice governors is a show of strength and an expression of democracy.