Cuban Parliament Approves New Electoral Law
Havana, July 13 (ACN) The deputies of the Cuban Parliament approved today the new Electoral Law of the Republic of Cuba, a document that regulates how the exercise of socialist democracy is carried out in the country, and that came into effect from the positive vote of the deputies.
The vote took place in the presence of Army General Raúl Castro, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Miguel Díaz-Canel, President of Cuba, during the Third Ordinary Session of the Ninth Legislature of the Cuban Parliament.
José Luis Toledo Santander, president of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, presented the opinion of the bill which states that in Cuba, the mandate of the people takes place through universal suffrage, and without political campaigns for any type of vote.
Acosta recalled some elements that stand out in the new law, such as the representative, elective and renewable character of the organs of power of the State, and the direct participation of the people in the control of the activity of the State organs and their members.
The Electoral Law preserves the principles that in the largest of the Antilles the people is the one who nominates and elects, and that the vote is free, equal, direct and secret.
In the Magno Texto the popular consultation, the referendum, the plebiscite, the legislative initiative and the constitutional reform are consigned as concrete forms of the exercise of direct democracy.
Two periodic elections are recognized: the municipal elections for the election of the delegates to the municipal Governments; and the national elections for the deputies of the Parliament, its President, Vice-president, Secretary, other members of the Council of State, and the President and Vice-president of the Republic.
The reduction of the total number of deputies to 474 stands out, which represents 131 less than those that make up the current Legislature, and it maintains the principle that up to 50 percent are selected from among the base delegates.
The text states that the Council of State will be made up of 21 members, including its directorship, ten fewer than before.
Also today, and in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic, will be established the National Electoral Council, and its instances at the provincial and municipal levels.
The deputies supported the new electoral law, because it defends the principles of true democracy: participatory and socialist, in line with the interests of the people and because it reflects the thinking of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.
(Taken from ACN in Spanish)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
