Cuban Elections: IV with Jorge Fariñas Molina

I spoke with Jorge Fariñas Molina, retired university professor of chemical engineering and former president of his local electoral council, to find out the theoretical underpinning of the Cuban electoral system, and how the various bodies function in relation to each other.

JWP: What is the most interesting feature of the Cuban electoral system?

JFM: I think the most interesting aspect of the electoral system, which is established in the electoral law, is the relationship between the government, the state, and the political leadership. These things are well-separated, from the philosophical point of view, with the idea that the government should always be pure, not corrupted by party interests or administrative interests. The government grows, or is constituted of, individuals, who perform their functions for a specified length of time, and for which they have to give a satisfactory account. The guarantee of this is measured, firstly, by the independence of their decision-making, their honesty in what they have done, and in giving account of their performance to the authorities established for this purpose. To me, this is the fundamental thing in the case of the Cuban model. Maybe, like all theoretical models, the practice can have deviations, there can be individuals who in one way or another don’t fully understand corruption, or can’t distinguish very well between what is a party function and what is a government or an administrative function. The real issue of how well it works is how well it governs, and this... in defence of the State, it has a real mechanism that guarantees that those who administer administer, those who govern, govern, and those who lead politically do so, all without any sort of interference.

Municipal Assembly

The actual form of government is established by the electoral law, which you can consult if you have any doubts or questions. The [Cuban] Government, like everywhere else in the world, focuses on three levels, the base, which in Cuba is the municipal level, here it is divided into more smaller levels which are called administrative councils, and circumscriptions, respectively The circumscription is the most basic entity, and the Administrative Council is that which the delegate enters to serve in the Municipal Government. This Municipal Government is made up of the delegates who are elected every two and half years, these delegates form a Municipal Assembly and elect an Administrative Council, a Council of Government, to perform all the administrative charges or responsibilities to organise this level. This same assembly proposes competent people from within its ranks, to form the Provincial and National Assemblies.

Provincial and National Assemblies

The provincial and national governments are elected every five years, people are proposed by provincial and national electoral commissions, and these people form the candidature for the Provincial and National assemblies. These candidatures are then put to the vote by the population. In every case the people always have the option to not vote for them, to cast a blank vote, or to vote for them. Independently of whatever question, always when an individual goes to vote they are the only person to see their vote. They can vote against the government, they can vote against the proposed candidate as a form of pressure against the government, or they can simply not go and vote because voting is voluntary. They also have the option to vote in favour of the proposed candidate, if they are in agreement with them. In the case of Cuban elections, I have participated as a president of an electoral council in more than ten elections, and in every case more than 90% of the population votes for the proposed candidate. There is evidently support for the electoral process. There is also a way to manifest rejection of a candidate, the people can simply not vote, or invalidate their vote so it is not counted. So any assembly with the character of the Provincial Assembly, or the National Assembly, which has elections every five years, exhibits this sort of behaviour. Our process has a very democratic character. If the provincial and national delegates here are not proposed directly by the population, nor are they in any other part of the world. Here we have a process of consultation with the delegates, with the Municipal Assembly, with other organs and social organisations, in one way or another they are all consulted. The effect of the consultation process to create the nominations is a democratic process because it consults the people, and it is democratic because it expresses that which has been voluntarily brought together by the zone to support this person. For these reasons we consider it has a very democratic character, also shown by the massive amount of support this process and this system has been receiving since the revolution. Independently of that we always believe that it is possible to improve any system and to fight to always guarantee that there cannot be corruption.

JWP: Did Cuba invent this system themselves, or copy it from another country?

JFM: To say it is purely Cuban would be impossible, because no single idea is not shared amongst us in general. There are elements of this that come from the organisation of the people. The government bodies draw on suggestions, the government has always received suggestions and still does, not just from socialist countries but from many countries in Latin America, it looks at their municipal, provincial, regional forms of government, they have a distinct form of organisation, and in each one of those, depending on their particular historical identity or historic elements, that forms part of this government. They each have a distinct form. I believe the only unique thing in our system is the conception that the party should not nominate candidates nor directly propose things to the government. That is to say the party, and the political leadership, should stay independent of the process of government and administration that corresponds to the state apparatus. Perhaps only for this reason it is much more careful than the other socialist countries, that directly participated in nominating the government, and created confusion between the government and the party. So it has been maintained, even though at the central and the state level the political figures and the figures of government coincide in many cases.

JWP: What responsibilities do each of the Municipal, Provincial and National governments have?

JFM: The electoral law establishes the limits and activities of each organism. But there are always some difficulties in practice. There are some things in the community that the community administers but there are other things that because of their historical characteristics or because of economic policy they are not administered locally, they might be administered at the provincial level or nationally. The law establishes the general principles and of what character each has, what is to be governed at the municipal level, what is to be governed at the provincial level, what is to be governed at the national level, what is best for the mix it is analysing, and it is not the same for everyone, what is appropriate for the mining industry, what is needed for the education system, or the public health system. The ideas from the beginning are distinct, for the entire system. For example in the national statistics system data is collected nationally, although each thing has its own organisation and function established by law for its own characteristics.

JWP: There has been a lot of criticism from outside of Cuba about its political and electoral system, mostly from the United States but also recently from the European Parliament. Do Cubans have confidence in their system, and if they aren’t satisfied, what can they do about it?

JFM: When the Pope was in Cuba he gave a very clear message to the world, that the world will get to know Cuba and Cuba will get to know the world. Ever since the start of the Revolution the opponents drew on and had at their disposal all the mass communication media of the United States. All of the enemies of the revolution and all of the anti-revolutionary fighters went and settled in Miami or in Europe, and they had a huge influence on all of the news media. There was always a strong fight against the Cuban revolution from the point of view of the mainstream media. The Cuban revolution is fighting in this sense firstly against the mainstream media through media independent of the traditional agencies such as AP, AUP. All of this system had been supporting those fighting against the Cuban revolution, and defending the interests of the old land-owners of the island of Cuba, who were definitively important figures of the North American oligarchy. The first world could be affected by how Cubans made a revolution and they didn’t want other countries to be influenced by the example of the revolution. Today it is the same – in Aventura already they have reported the death of a journalist, and the European Parliament, they’re not interested in that. They haven’t said a word about that, they are only concerning themselves with a person who died in Cuba on a hunger strike, maybe they should develop their principles, their ideas, to worry about a death should be the same for every death, they are concerned about a person who killed himself in Cuba but ignoring the 20 journalists that have been killed recently in Honduras. What panic is this, a problem of the revolution or a problem of the mass media?

JWP: And if the Cuban people want to change the system, is there support for them to do so, and how could they do it? Does the Cuban Constitution contain mechanisms to enable change?

JFM: The Cuban system, first, overcame with a revolution which was fought openly against the established rule of the United States, and they destroyed it The Cuban people know that when they want to kick out an enemy above, they can. Historically we have kicked out the Spanish and we have kicked out the yanquis – we know how to change our government. Until now the majority decision of Cubans have supported the Cuban government, independently of whatever outsiders say, Cubans know we can resolve Cuba’s problems, we don’t need ideas from outside, we have made it clear we will solve Cuba’s problems. We don’t deny the ideas of whatever Cuban inmate has in his country, but our thinking, the basic philosopher of the Cuban revolution, Jose Marti, considered that the government should make life good for all Cuban men and all Cuban women, that is the same idea that is upheld by the socialist constitution, the government by all, for the good all. And that doesn’t deny the participation of every Cuban in whatever way they choose to vote. But it is for Cubans, not for Europeans, Europeans can solve Europe’s problems, the United States can solve the problems of the United States, Cubans are not interested in foreign interference in our country. We have a sufficient cultural level, a sufficient level of information, a level of media, the means, a high level of democracy – they say we can’t compose our own government because we are not accustomed to democracy – they are wrong.

JWP: So Cuba’s message to the world?

JFM: I don’t know, I consider, yes, I am a Cuban and I am in agreement with the massive level of 90% support for the Cuban revolution, so I am rich Cuban from that point of view! There are other Cubans, 10%, who want to think, and who think, differently from me, and they can propose whatever they want, but definitely in practice the truth is that approach of the struggle is with the participation of all, in the mechanisms of government that exist in Cuba to help us to do so.

The elections are on 24 April, and I hope to be reporting from the ballot boxes!!!

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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