Havana Cuba. — The activity of the Castro regime continues to prepare the elections for municipal delegates of the so-called “People’s Power”, which should be held on Sunday the 27th. Any description may be given to this phase of popular voting, except “democratic”. Those who are elected in it will be able to participate in the adoption of various agreements, but never in the “important decisions” announced by a lying and ridiculous promo that is shown on television.
But it is necessary to recognize that this is the only exercise of this type that deserves the name of “elections” in Cuba, since, during it, the electorate does have a certain choice; Yes, you can choose between several nominees. Although the method by which all of these are selected favors —that is— that the generality of the postulates is related to the imposed regime.
Mimicking the “telescreens” embodied by George Orwell in his great novel 1984, Cuban Television does not spare signs referring to the process whose initial round will culminate on the aforementioned day 27. Until a few days ago, those signs raised the hashtag #VoluntadDeNominar; Today they are replaced by others that say #WillToChoose.
These simple slogans reveal the repulsive imprint left by the inept bureaucrats of the fateful Ideological Department attached to the Central Committee of the single party. The repellent little sign pierces the pupils of the spectators, regardless of whether they are watching the soap opera on duty, a sporting event, a dramatic program or one of the very few comedy shows that Cuban Television is showing today (the calamitous situation in which the country does not favor jokes or jokes).
According to a television announcement, the nomination process for councilor candidates will have ended without glories or sorrows this Friday. A gross illegality: Article 95 of the code that governs the matter establishes: “Once the candidates for delegates to the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power are nominated, their photos and biographies are exhibited in public places for a period of no less than fifteen (15) days prior to Election Day.
Attendance at the corresponding assemblies was meager. The interventions were poor. Communist propaganda wants to project the image of a vibrant process full of enthusiasm and civility. But the reality has been very different from that.
Although in reality the turnout has been very poor, on paper she appears to have been much older. The communist organizers accept the practice that simple citizens have enthroned: that any one of the members of a family nucleus carry the summons slips of all their relatives. With that, everyone is happy: those who remain at home, to be able to watch the television program of their choice; and the bosses, due to the high “attendance rates”.
Little has been said or written about the null results that the purpose of certain opposition groups to try to nominate some of their members has produced. I have already written that this endeavor is not easy. The nomination is made by the residents in a public vote. They are attended by the so-called “factors” (that is, the local bosses and representatives of the “political and mass organizations” at the service of the regime). Added to them are the inevitable “insurances”.
In this environment of disinterest, coercion, bossing and intimidation, it is not easy for a majority of the attendees to raise their arms in support of a well-known dissident. It is worth mentioning here the answer that my personal friend and lawyer from Agramonte Hildebrando Chaviano He gave it to a neighbor who came up to commend the value of which he (Hildebrando) had shown when proposing himself as a candidate: “No, friend, the value of the voters who raised their hands to vote for me.”
We already know that the official media, faithful to its essence and its vocation, will not address this issue. But it is that neither has the true Cuban press (the independent one, I mean). An exception is the information dated 14 of the current, in which Cuban newspaper reports: “The regime prevents Cubans María Elena Mir and Zuleydis Pérez Velázquez from running for municipal ‘elections.'”
The text tells us that, in the case of the first, the usual little sign informing of the place and time of the meeting was not posted; on the contrary, they resorted to making an almost clandestine summons. In short, the nomination assembly was held with only 16 attendees. With the second, the pro-government action was more crude: political police agents showed up at her home and prevented her from leaving it to participate in the meeting. In short, I insist, there is no known opposition candidate who has managed to be nominated.
What to do in the face of these sad realities? I agree with numerous other dissident compatriots that the most appropriate thing, given the course of events, is not to vote. And in the case of those voters who do not wish to “mark” in this way and give in to pressure from the regime to go to the polling station, they must annul the ballot.
In the remaining cases, I believe that choosing between Juan, Pedro or María, even if one of the three is a neighbor or a friend of ours, is playing the game of the regime. None of the three is going to solve anything of weight. And none of them will participate in making “important decisions”. In this unfortunate country, the latter are taken only at the national level, and not by the deputies (who are limited to applauding and raising their hands to unanimously approve everything proposed by the communist hierarchs), but by the instances of the single party.
OPINION ARTICLE
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