|
|
|
Friday,
March 05, 2010
(11:30 hrs) |
 A
Party without Electoral Purposes and a Guarantor of the Elections
Lino Lubén Pérez
Unlike the universal practice, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) has
since its creation nearly half a century ago, the thesis that it is
not an institution for electoral purposes: neither appoints
candidates nor elects them.
Its role as “the highest leading force of society and the state” is
defined in the
Constitution of the Republic, approved in a popular referendum in
1976, when 98 percent of voters exercise their right in an election
that set standards of participatory democracy.
The PCC embodies the fighting traditions of earlier generations; it
is a follower of the Cuban Revolutionary Party founded by José Martí
to achieve national independence, the first Communist Party and the
revolutionary organizations that fought against the tyranny of
Fulgencio Batista.
Such a background legitimize the existence of a single party under
the conditions of the island facing since the beginning of the
Revolution in 1959 the unbridled interventionism of the U.S.
governments that have sought to regain its former colony at any
price.
Under these conditions, the defense of the revolutionary is
recurrent; the party's electoral role is limited to ensuring that
elections are carried out transparently and according to the
Constitution, as in the current process of nomination of candidates
to the Municipal Assemblies of People's Power.
Even membership (in the PCC) of the nominees is not a requirement,
although many of them are militants, precisely because of being
prestigious citizens.
But this democratic exercise is not manifested only when there is
call to the polls, but the political and mass organizations,
including children from fourth grade, regularly elect their
grassroots leaders and even at the national level.
Another characteristic is that in no type of election electoral
propaganda is allowed such as posters, billboards, television and
radio appearances, nor rallies in favor of the candidates.
How much would be done in Cuba with the record of 641 million
dollars raised in 2008 for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama,
who made many promises to win the power at the White House and has
not fulfilled any?.
Each of these alienating messages is replaced by the publication in
public places of the biographies and photos of the candidates under
the same conditions for each of them. The candidates, as a rule, are
widely known by voters, because they are prestigious citizens living
in their own neighborhood.
Even the custody of the polls differ from the traditional one,
guarded by children as opposed to the threatening presence of police
or armed soldiers at the doors of polling stations, something
typical in other countries.
Source:
Cuban News Agency
|
|
