Nomination of candidates: Challenge to Cuban civics

By María Julia Mayoral—Granma daily

ALREADY a daily practice and, at the same time a growing aspiration among Cubans, equality of opportunity has another peak moment to express itself at national level: the nomination of candidates for the municipal assembly of People's Power, which begins this Saturday and continues to the end of September.

A minimum of 30,400 candidates can be nominated, given that each constituency (there are more than 15,200) has to complete the process with at least two candidates. In other words, there can never be just one candidate.

Without the intervention of a political party that would usurp the rights of the people, voters’ individual and collective responsibility is key at the point of proposing their state representatives.

Political affiliation, gender, occupation or religious belief have no part in candidates being nominated; moreover, any Cuban can nominate him/herself. Nominations depend on popular approval, given that each nomination assembly (more than 50,600) puts forward the candidate with the most votes.

However, the aim and need to improve the system in the country merits each elector – and particularly the great majority of the people who recognize themselves as defenders of the Revolution – making a serious evaluation of their potential candidates.

Without good candidates – people with sensibility, an enterprising spirit of solidarity, a vocation for serving others, fidelity to the people’s revolutionary interests, education, political courage and an ability to analyze problems and seek solutions with the participation of their fellow citizens – it would be impossible to have People's Power assemblies potentially efficient in terms of exercising their complex functions.

Once again, the decisions are in the hands of millions of Cubans as electors; this is a civic right and duty that merits being undertaken with political maturity and revolutionary passion.

Translated by Granma International