In the early hours of this Sunday morning, there was still little influx in the voting centers for the referendum on the Family Code and the majority of the voters were elderly, according to what the reporters from 14ymedio in Havana and Santiago de Cuba.
About eight and a half million Cubans are called to participate in this referendum, the third to be held under the current political system and in which they will vote to approve or reject a text that in recent months has generated intense controversy over the same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples and surrogacy.
According to the National Electoral Council (CEN), at 11:40 in the morning, almost five hours after the opening of schools, 37.03% of registered voters had gone to the polls.
Voters are distributed among more than 24,000 polling stations, which will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. this day, a Sunday of uncertainty due to the advance of Tropical Storm Ian, which is forecast to reach the category of hurricane in the next few hours and affect western Cuba.
A text that has generated intense controversy about same-sex marriage, adoption by homosexual couples and surrogacy
The proximity of the meteor has thrown Cubans into the streets in search of canned food, bread, cookies, candles and other products that will allow them to avoid confinement in their homes when the winds and rains become stronger. However, shortages have worsened in recent hours, causing longer lines at bakeries and markets.
“It’s very early, Sunday and on the eve of a hurricane,” said, to justify the low turnout, the official in charge of checking voters’ identity cards before going to mark their ballot at a polling station in the Havana neighborhood of Key West. A few meters away, a queue to buy bread gathered more people than the referendum on the Family Code.
“I came early to get out of this,” he told 14ymedio Missy, a 28-year-old woman who cast her vote at a polling station in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood. “My daughter is in primary school and a few days ago she was summoned to take care of her ballot boxes. She didn’t want to come, but the teacher told her that even if it was two hours she had to fulfill that commitment.”
“He went early and came back melted. He told me that very few people had gone to vote so far and that the snack they gave to the students who guard the polls is terrible: cold bread with bad mincemeat and a bag of hot Coral soda” , the mother complains.
In the same school as Missy, her mother and grandmother voted. “Although they do not believe it, they marked the yes and I the no”, details the young woman. “Because they are immersed in partisan militancy but I, although I am a lesbian and the issue of same-sex marriage suits me, I prefer to wait to have other rights first.”
Nearby, in Los Sitios, Dalmar and Julito have been placing the multicolored flag that identifies the LGBTI community on their balcony for days. This Sunday they went to vote early and both marked yes. “We want to get married as soon as possible and appeal to supportive motherhood to be able to have a child together,” they comment to this newspaper. “We have fought hard to get here and although it is not an ideal situation, we cannot continue to postpone our rights.”
“Between the dead and the emigrants, we have 54 people who are not going to come to vote out of those we had in the registry,” one of the organizers of a school in Cerro, near Avenida They will ayesta “When we finish, we will know how many people are no longer in Cuba,” she stressed.
According to the official press, Díaz-Canel assured that “there is a whole platform against the Code that starts from the demonization and discredit of the Cuban Revolution”
The exodus of recent months, the largest that the Island has suffered in its entire history and which is estimated to be close to 200,000 people, has taken part of the electorally active population. So emigration also marks elections where the expectation of leaving the country soon has made many desist from going to the polls.
“Why am I going to go, if I’m leaving this country?”, explained a 19-year-old young man this Sunday morning in an improvised basketball court located in a vacant lot in Nuevo Vedado. “What do those who stay decide, when I take the plane, I will no longer have to abide by any of those laws, I will be affected by the laws of the country where I go.”
Next to him, other young people of similar ages repeat a similar speech. “I already have everything to leave for Nicaragua, so it’s as if I weren’t here,” adds another of the players who from early on preferred to shoot the ball rather than put the ballot in the ballot box.
“I haven’t seen young people,” emphasizes Manuel, a Havanan who went to vote early and checked the no box. “When I entered the school, it was around nine in the morning and there was only one old man. Then I made a tour of other schools in my neighborhood and only saw other old people.”
The presence in the early hours of voters over 60 years of age may be due not only to the fact that among young people sleeping on Sunday morning is a more widespread habit, but also to the militancy of the Communist Party and the active members of organizations such as the Committee of Defense of the Revolution are mostly people who are over five or six decades old.
The one who did arrive at first light on Sunday and surrounded by cameras and microphones at his polling station in the municipality of Playa was Miguel Díaz-Canel. The president took advantage of the moment to qualify the enthusiasm that he had shown in previous days: “The expectation is not that it will be a unanimous vote, but I do believe that it will be the majority of our people.”
According to the official press, Díaz-Canel assured that “there is a whole platform against the Code that starts from the demonization and discredit of the Cuban Revolution,” and described the call for a referendum as brave “in the conditions that the country is going through: shortages, blackouts, shortages, with an important part of the economy paralyzed”.
Diaz-Canel did not even rule out the possibility of a “punishment vote” and explained that “in such complex issues where there is a diversity of criteria and in the midst of a complex situation, there may even be people who have a punishment vote.” .
The official press also showed former Cuban leader Raúl Castro at the time of the vote, although his presence in the official campaign to promote yes for the Family Code was very scarce.
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