Radio Cadena Agramonte

By María Josefina Arce

Since the end of last year, Cuba has been immersed in a new electoral cycle, which began with the holding throughout the country of almost 45,000 meetings, in which the people nominated their candidates for delegates to the Municipal Assemblies of People's Power and those who represent the interests of the different communities.

In November, the elections took place in which 12,422 delegates from the districts were elected at the polls, who also, since last December, make up the 168 Municipal Assemblies of the national territory.

Now and as part of this electoral process, since the beginning of this week and until today, February 3, the delegates analyze the draft candidacy for the Cuban Parliament, which will have 470 members, 135 less than the current legislature.

This list is the result of the analysis and evaluation by the National Nominations Commission of the more than 4,000 proposals made by mass and student organizations in the country, in a new demonstration of the genuinely democratic and inclusive nature of the Cuban electoral system.

Consuelo Baeza, president of the National Nominations Commission, highlighted, in declarations to the Granma newspaper, that during the nomination there was a notorious recognition by the people of the role of young people, and of sectors such as science and health, for the work carried out during the most tense moment of the COVID 19 pandemic.

It is worth mentioning that 55% are women, 20% are young people up to 35 years old, 95% have a higher education level and there is a renewal of 63%.

Next Sunday, extraordinary sessions of the Municipal Assemblies will be held to elect the candidates, who must obtain more than 50% of the valid votes to reach the parliamentary elections in March.

From the sixth of this month until March 24, the candidates for deputies will visit work centers, student centers and communities to interact with the people.

During all this time, the National Electoral Council has been immersed in the preparation of the March 26 elections, which has entailed the constitution of the information processing groups that will operate in each one of the districts to guarantee, as usual, the speed and transparency of the process.

An essential aspect that has been worked on is the training of the electoral authorities, who will receive a second training later on.

Cuba is getting ready for the elections to be held on March 26, when Cubans will choose at the polls the members of the National Assembly of People's Power, where all layers of society are represented and which is due to the people.