HAVANA: Cuba votes for a new National Assembly on Sunday, a key step in a procedure resulting in the election of a new president, the first in just about 60 years from out of doors the Castro circle of relatives.
The new participants of the National Assembly will probably be tasked with opting for a successor to 86-year-old President Raul Castro when he steps down subsequent month.
Raul took over in 2006 from his sick brother Fidel, who had governed since seizing power all the way through the 1959 revolution.
Eight million Cubans are anticipated to turn out to ratify 605 candidates for an equivalent collection of seats within the Assembly, a procedure shorn of suspense and unique to the Communist-run Caribbean island nation.
"They're the most important elections of recent years, because we are going to vote for new people who will govern from then on," day-care middle father or mother Ramon Perez advised AFP.
Sunday's common election is the first since the loss of life in 2016 of Fidel Castro, and marks the start of main alternate on the most sensible in Cuba.
Candidates may be either participants of the Cuban Communist Party or no longer, and may also belong to business unions or be scholars.
The designation of candidates is according to advantage, skills and the commitment of the people," Raul Castro stated when he announced the elections ultimate yr.
"Nobody exchanges promises for votes, or boasts of his skills to get supporters... this is the actual and outstanding face of what we proudly call socialist democracy," the legit day-to-day Granma wrote.
More than half of the candidates, 322, are girls.
Cuba's president is designated through a 31-member Council of State, whose head is mechanically president of the country. But the Council of State first needs to be decided on through the National Assembly.
Castro had already announced that he would no longer be seeking a new time period, despite the fact that he is anticipated to stay head of the all-powerful Communist Party until 2021.
His first vice-president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, 57, is broadly anticipated to prevail him and is committed to ensuring continuity.
Born after the revolution, Diaz-Canel, an engineer, slowly climbed to the highest rungs of Cuba's hierarchy over a three-decade career beneath Raul's mentorship.
"There will still be a president of Cuba within the procedure of protecting the revolution," he stated in November.
Turnout for the election is expected to be round 90 p.c. Although vote casting is voluntary, no longer vote casting is frowned upon and going to the polls is regarded as an act of sovereignty and of "revolutionary affirmation."
The ultimate results will probably be known on Monday.
Opposition criticism of the method facilities round the fact that the president isn't selected in direct elections.
Cuban dissident Rosa Maria Paya, of the Cuba Decide motion, desires a referendum on editing the island's govt system and says her crew will probably be watching for signs "of rejection of the electoral procedure, wherein if truth be told we can not elect" any person.
Cubans who wish to demonstrate opposition in most cases damage their ballots.
The Otro18 opposition motion could also be calling for alternate.
"The electorate don't participate within the choice or the election of the president and we think it is a decisive moment for the electorate to push a request" to modify the electoral system, says Manuel Costa Morua, Otro18's chief.
The new participants of the National Assembly will probably be tasked with opting for a successor to 86-year-old President Raul Castro when he steps down subsequent month.
Raul took over in 2006 from his sick brother Fidel, who had governed since seizing power all the way through the 1959 revolution.
Eight million Cubans are anticipated to turn out to ratify 605 candidates for an equivalent collection of seats within the Assembly, a procedure shorn of suspense and unique to the Communist-run Caribbean island nation.
"They're the most important elections of recent years, because we are going to vote for new people who will govern from then on," day-care middle father or mother Ramon Perez advised AFP.
Sunday's common election is the first since the loss of life in 2016 of Fidel Castro, and marks the start of main alternate on the most sensible in Cuba.
Candidates may be either participants of the Cuban Communist Party or no longer, and may also belong to business unions or be scholars.
The designation of candidates is according to advantage, skills and the commitment of the people," Raul Castro stated when he announced the elections ultimate yr.
"Nobody exchanges promises for votes, or boasts of his skills to get supporters... this is the actual and outstanding face of what we proudly call socialist democracy," the legit day-to-day Granma wrote.
More than half of the candidates, 322, are girls.
Cuba's president is designated through a 31-member Council of State, whose head is mechanically president of the country. But the Council of State first needs to be decided on through the National Assembly.
Castro had already announced that he would no longer be seeking a new time period, despite the fact that he is anticipated to stay head of the all-powerful Communist Party until 2021.
His first vice-president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, 57, is broadly anticipated to prevail him and is committed to ensuring continuity.
Born after the revolution, Diaz-Canel, an engineer, slowly climbed to the highest rungs of Cuba's hierarchy over a three-decade career beneath Raul's mentorship.
"There will still be a president of Cuba within the procedure of protecting the revolution," he stated in November.
Turnout for the election is expected to be round 90 p.c. Although vote casting is voluntary, no longer vote casting is frowned upon and going to the polls is regarded as an act of sovereignty and of "revolutionary affirmation."
The ultimate results will probably be known on Monday.
Opposition criticism of the method facilities round the fact that the president isn't selected in direct elections.
Cuban dissident Rosa Maria Paya, of the Cuba Decide motion, desires a referendum on editing the island's govt system and says her crew will probably be watching for signs "of rejection of the electoral procedure, wherein if truth be told we can not elect" any person.
Cubans who wish to demonstrate opposition in most cases damage their ballots.
The Otro18 opposition motion could also be calling for alternate.
"The electorate don't participate within the choice or the election of the president and we think it is a decisive moment for the electorate to push a request" to modify the electoral system, says Manuel Costa Morua, Otro18's chief.
Cuba vote opens final chapter of Castro era
![Cuba vote opens final chapter of Castro era]()
Reviewed by Kailash
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March 12, 2018
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