REPORT

Legislative elections in Cuba: mixed voters, provisional turnout up

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In the Cuban electoral system, children guard the ballot boxes. © RFI / Stefanie Schüler

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2 min

Cubans were called to the polls this Sunday, March 26 to renew the National Assembly of People's Power, the unicameral parliament of the country. 470 candidates were vying for the 470 seats. In Cuba's one-party system, none of these candidates represent the opposition. The provisional turnout is 70.33%, according to the National Electoral Council. A figure more important than the final participation in the last elections.

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With our special correspondent in Havana, Stefanie Schüler

The Castro government is in the habit of describing elections as a "great popular festival". But after the vote, Cubans' feelings were mixed, to say the least.

Whether they voted or not on Sunday, the inhabitants of the capital agree on one point: the country is going through a serious economic crisis, which is severely affecting the living conditions of the population. And this is precisely why this mother voted for the communist candidates:

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MPs are not going to succeed in improving the country's economic situation overnight. But I think the government is making efforts to solve this crisis," she said. Today, Cuba is a different country than it was five or ten years ago thanks to the measures taken to enable private entrepreneurship or to improve the supply of jobs within state-owned enterprises.

The under 30s not interested in the election

This student did not go to vote. Since electoral campaigns were banned in Cuba, he regretted not knowing the candidates and criticized the absence of any political program. For this young person, Parliament is nothing more than a rubber stamp:

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To tell the truth, I would like to vote for someone who truly represents me, for someone who would not come to Parliament to obey and say yes to everything. Cubans under the age of 30 or 25 are no longer interested in elections at all. Young people know that nothing will change, that everything will continue in the same way, that it will not be a solution to their problems," he says.

And the student to confide that he will not trust the abstention figures that will be communicated by the government.

► READ ALSO: Cuba: a vote without stakes in Parliament, against the backdrop of economic crisis

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