Cuba's polling stations are getting ready

By Maria Josefina Arce

In the next few hours, polling stations will be activated in Cuba, for the dynamic test that is usually carried out in the country before each electoral process, in order to finalize all the details and ensure that the voting day runs smoothly and with total transparency.

This Sunday, the mechanisms of communication, transportation and performance of the electoral authorities will be verified, in view of the appointment at the polls on the coming 26th, when the people with their free, direct and secret vote will elect the 470 deputies of the National Assembly of People's Power for the term of five years.

The more than 200 thousand citizens who will participate with different responsibilities in the elections have received intense training, which makes this process a people's event, assured the president of the National Electoral Council, Alina Balseiro.

As part of this preparation, they have been taught how to process the information, how to make the reports that will be issued and what they must explain to the citizens about the vote. These people, invested with electoral authority, will be accompanied by supervisors and collaborators, which will allow the identification and timely solution of eventual errors that could affect the development and cleanliness of the voting.

The preparations for this new exercise of participative democracy have progressed satisfactorily. Work has been done in the verification of the voters' lists and in the identification of the more than 23 thousand polling stations.

These lists have been placed in visible places, as well as the biographies of the candidates as is usual in our country, where there is no campaigning, but all are on equal terms.

Likewise, the media have disclosed the biographies of the 470 candidates, who represent all sectors of society, and of them 221 are grassroots delegates, 135 provincial and 114 national.

However, for a greater and better knowledge of the candidates by the electorate, they have been touring the territories where they were nominated. They have been in direct contact with the people to listen to their concerns and also to their suggestions and proposals, in the face of certain problems.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel, also a candidate for the municipality of Santa Clara, in the central province of Villa Clara, has described this dialogue with the people as essential to work for the present and future of the country.

For months, intense work has been carried out to make this a new successful electoral process, in which, as usual, transparency, authenticity and impartiality will prevail.