by Mailenys Oliva Ferrales

Cubans returned to the polls. And there is a lot of certainty in that anticipated affirmation that is born from the popular rootedness that electoral processes have in the Greater of the Antilles.

We are going to vote, not only because it is a right, but also because doing so represents an act of civic responsibility, full political maturity, and a sense of belonging to the nation we have been building for more than six decades.

We are going to vote because despite the current context, of the economic shortages and of the constant imperialism, we have more than enough reasons to continue betting on our social project, which -not exempt from mistakes and still perfectible- has always placed the people at the top of its priorities.

We are going to vote, precisely, for the representatives of the people, who are none other than our people: teachers, peasants, intellectuals, self-employed, students... delegates from the grassroots, whose mission will be to form a National Assembly with constituent and legislative power in the Republic to continue building the country with the collective effort.

Therefore, when we go to the polls, we will be endorsing the democratic character of the Revolution, which is the same as ratifying the commitment of the parliamentarians to their constituents, their needs, and their aspirations for progress.

To make this commitment a reality, and as it has been said many times, our deputies must walk with their ears to the ground, banishing bureaucracies, listening to the feelings of their constituents... and returning again and again to the neighborhoods and communities, which is where the root of the socialist work emerges.

Hence, the united vote for the 470 candidates proposed for the X Legislature of the Parliament is not an empty slogan, nor an unfounded harangue. The call to vote for all is the result of a profound process that takes into account diversity and the valuable possibility that no sector or region of the Island is left without representation in the supreme body of State power. That is Cuba: democratic, socialist, and sovereign.

And although it is the right of each voter to vote for one, two, or more members on the ballot, voting for all constitutes the maximum expression of the unity of a country that continues to look to the future amid complex circumstances and in the face of a machinery of hatred that only seeks servility and annexation without honor to the empire.

In the face of this reality, discouragement will never be an option, because as our President, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, has said, "... in difficult times for Cuba, commitment, solidarity, and the desire to continue moving forward come to the surface. Today, we are going for victory! (Taken from the Granma newspaper)