Havana, June 2 (RHC)-- The first day of the Extraordinary Session of the 9th Legislature of the National Assembly of People's Power got underway Saturday morning in Havana.  The special meeting, which will run through Monday, was presided over by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel; First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Raul Castro; and José Ramón Machado Ventura, Second Secretary of the Communist Party.

Saturday's session was attended by 572 deputies out of the 605 elected for a five-year mandate in general elections held on March 11th.

In his opening words, the President of the National Assembly, Esteban Lazo, expressed his condolences to relatives of the victims of the recent air tragedy, which took the lives of 112 passengers on the ill-fated flight taking off from Havana's Jose Marti International Airport on May 18th.  All of the delegates stood for a minute of silence.

During the parliamentary session, deputies approved the make-up of the legislative body’s standing committees and parliamentary friendship groups. They also approved a timetable for reforms to be introduced in the Cuban constitution, and set up the special commission that will put together and submit a draft of the country's new Magna Carta.

The Cuban parliament president explained that the process to reform the Constitution aims to adapt it to today's society, thus contributing to improve the people's wellbeing and quality of life.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel took the floor and explained that the duties of the approved special commission include reviewing the impact of decisions adopted at the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, and constitutional reforms processes as developed in other countries, taking into account our country's reality and experiences in building socialism.  

The Cuban head of state further said the Commission will elaborate a draft document that will be submitted to popular consultations, so that Cubans express their views and concerns freely, and a referendum, for the people to decide in a direct manner over the final text of the new Cuban Constitution.

He stressed that the new Magna Carta will uphold and preserve the principles of social justice and high humanism that have characterized the Cuban Revolution throughout its history.