Alarcon on Cuba, Democracy, & the 2010 Elections

In 2008 Cuba suffered three devastating hurricanes within a matter of weeks, followed hot on the heels by the world economic meltdown.

Last week I asked Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban National Assembly of Peoples’ Power, how the country and the people are holding up, and what particular features help them weather these natural, and unnatural, disasters.

Alarcon replied: “The only way you can do it is to work, to try harder, to face the natural and unnatural constraints or damage that
we may face. I would say that believe it or not the answer to that is democracy, socialism, more socialism, that means more democracy. It means people engagement, people’s commitment to work together to confront the challenges that nature provokes.

A hurricane is a perfect example. We have organised a civil defence system based on the participation of everybody, but the most striking things you see during a hurricane are the examples of human solidarity.

Some commentators abroad refer to the efficiency of Cuba as “Cuba’s evacuation programme” when a hurricane comes. Yes, but they fail to say that most of the evacuees are either self-evacuated or are evacuated to a friend’s home, to somebody else’s place who offers. People are accustomed to face this every year. When the hurricane season starts, people will move, and will get the support of others.

Well, it is the same with the economy, it is the same at the political level, it is the same at the electoral process, getting together,
participating as equals and developing human solidarity, that is the essential of democracy, that is to say, the essential of socialism.”

2010 Elections
Which took me nicely to my next question - the Cuban people are about to go to the polls in the first national municipal elections since Fidel Castro stepped down due to ill-health. I asked him, “Do you expect any surprises?”

“Many surprises! Why? Election day will be April 25 and the following Sunday will be the run-off, if no candidate has an absolute majority of 50% plus 1. But that is at the end of the process, the process began yesterday through the neighbourhood meetings in which the electors, the people themselves, individually nominate anybody they want to, as their candidate for that election. There will be, phew, more than 50,000 such meetings as those begun yesterday, in which anybody can nominate anybody and they will decide who will be their candidate. Our system is not based on electoral parties, it is not an electoral machinery which presents candidates. It is the people themselves, directly,” he explained.

“The Municipal Assemblies [from which the National Assembly is drawn] are made up of delegates elected at the various precincts that constitute that municipality. Every municipality has a number of precincts depending on its population and size, and every precinct is divided into nominating areas. In heavily populated areas like Havana, this might be one block, but in the country it will be a larger surrounding area.

Now we are at the first stage. Every nominating area will have meetings where the people propose this neighbour or another, whoever they like. The various candidates so elected throughout the precinct will go to the ballot of 25th April.

According to the law there have to be at least two, and up to eight, candidates, that’s the limit. In order to be elected you have to get 50% plus one of the vote. If there are 2 candidates it is easier, but when you have more than 2 candidates, as happens on many occasions, you will need a run-off between those receiving the most votes.

So as a matter of fact, rather than ‘an election’, we have an electoral process throughout which there are dozens, thousands of
elections on a smaller scale, and then at the larger scale.

And then the results at the end – I said that there will be surprises because I don’t have the slightest idea of who is proposing whom, or will propose whom tomorrow, or the day after – in other countries its easier, you know it will be the political machinery, political parties who will decide who is their candidate. In our case, it is impossible, it’s simply impossible to know because you have 8 million 4 hundred thousand electors with the capacity to nominate.

Voter Registration
I said it seemed a complicated process, involving a lot of preparation and commitment...

Alarcon responded: “First of all it is very easy. You don’t have to pay, you don’t have to do anything to become a registered elector, to have the right to vote. In Cuba registration to vote is automatic. You have a right to vote when you reach 16 years of age, it is a birth given right - like health care, like education, there is also the right to vote when you reach 16 years of age.

I would say that it is, rather, a very simple process but of course that implies a lot of participation, a lot of volunteer work. It
involves tens of thousands of people that are volunteering, practically everybody.

For example, part of it is the publication of the electoral lists. At every neighbourhood, and you can see that around here in Havana at the drug store, at the market, they put a list of names called the Basic List. It is public in order that people can see and check if they are there or not, because maybe there is a mistake and they are not, and people also move, people die, people grow older and a person who was a child at the last election is 16 now or will be 16 by election day. It is an opportunity for the public to check and to correct that list, and also to control that list.

I know, and every Cuban citizen knows, how many and who can vote in my electoral college and I know that if there are say 300, more or less an average number for an electoral college, I can see them, and I can say no, no this guy moved, he is now living in Matanzas, he shouldn’t be here, or, that person unfortunately passed away last year, okay they can correct that. I also know that the total is 300, so nobody can get more than 300 votes in that place.

The foundation of fraud in an election is the secrecy of the list, and you can control that possibility by publicising the list, this is a
process that is also going on now. On the one hand the candidates are being nominated by the people, and on the other hand everybody being able to know where you can vote.

Election Campaign
The so-called campaign here is very simple also – the bios - photos and biographies - of the various candidates will be put around in public places - the drugstore, the market, the bus-stop – you will see people going “Ah, that’s the friend of so-and-so, that’s the cousin of....” because they know the person directly because it is one of their neighbours, or they know that someone else in their precinct knows them directly because that is why they proposed them.”

To ensure fairness, each candidate is allowed only one A4-size page, and there is no radio or television campaigning, billboards, or any of the other costly campaigning methods to be found in other countries. This ensures everyone has an equal chance, and that candidates with more financial resources cannot get an unfair advantage.

Voting Day
Alarcon continued: “Voting itself is very very simple also, because we have thousands of volunteers. Also, it is on a Sunday, from first thing in the morning until the night, and the run-off is the next Sunday, and if there has to be another (and it has happened, two
people got exactly the same), then the next Sunday.

Talking about the concentrated population areas, big cities like Havana for example, you have probably thousands of polling places. In the country of course it is different, you have to travel a little, you have to walk, or ride, or take a horse or whatever, to the nearest place, like a rural school.

In Havana, an area with a highly concentrated population, you walk perhaps to the next corner from your house, where 200 more people are supposed to vote, and in my personal experience it doesn’t take more than 2 or 3 minutes. You go there and you show your ID card and somebody will check the list of people registered to vote in that place, and they will make a notation, they will give you a ballot, you will go inside a private place, you mark the ballot in the way you want, and then you come out and put it in the box, and then at the end of the day that box is opened.

The voting is secret, nobody knows what you do in that private place, but the counting of the ballot has to be public and the result has to be published there. There is no possibility of fraud, no possibility whatsoever. Everybody knows how many and who can vote. Everybody knows that the vote was secret. And everybody can witness the actual result of that ballot, can participate in the counting.

I remember on one occasion a foreign journalist came looking for me at my precinct on voting day because they knew where we live and where we vote, and they wanted a statement. I went to one of the voting places in my precinct, and a friend told me, “There were some journalists looking for you.” I went home and later spoke with one of them, and he said, “I tried to find you but I couldn’t, but anyway, congratulations,” and he gave me the results of that polling booth. “Hey, how do you know?” I asked. He replied, “I was there just watching, and looking for you, and someone said, would you like to come in, please, because it’s open.” He said he even helped them with the counting!

Costs
In order to do all that you need a lot of people volunteering, because it is not a big machine like in other countries. It’s not so costly
really, the main costs are the printing of the ballots and the communications for the dissemination of the results, these imply some
costs like computers and telephones etc - but no salaries.

Turnout
About what there will be no surprise, is that there will be a huge turnout. Some people make jokes about that abroad. It’s always about 90%. But it is no surprise to me because everybody is practically involved in one way or another in the preparations and the process, and when you know the candidate - or if you don’t know them personally you know someone else who knows them personally - and you have confidence in the process of how that person came to appear on the ballot, that makes a huge difference compared to the anonymity of other places. It’s so abstract to have a party nominating.

In our case, I think that is the foundation of the very big turnout. There is a more direct connection between the candidates and the
electors that makes them feel more connected with the process, and so they show up on election day.

I would suggest to you that you take this opportunity of being here at this time to witness this process,” he finished.

You’re on, Señor Alarcon! I’m off to my local precinct to find out when the nomination meeting is being held. Stay tuned!

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Julie Webb-Pullman (click to view previous articles) is a New Zealand based freelance writer who has reported about - and on occasion from - Central America for Scoop since 2003. Send Feedback tojulie@scoop.co.nz

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