MIAMI, United States. — D Front, an opposition coalition Composed mostly of independent Cuban civil society organizations and actors, it called on the island’s citizens to abstain from voting during the next round of elections that will take place on March 26.
The platform, which considers these elections illegal and unrepresentative, released a statement in which it invited Cubans to join its “Your abstention is your voice” campaign, while asking Internet users to make public their reasons for not going to vote.
According to D Frente, there cannot be “free, pluralist, fair and comprehensive democratic elections” without a “constitutional reform that establishes popular sovereignty” and that, in addition, “establishes a rule of law without ideologies” and “eliminates the unique character of the Communist Party”.
The coalition assured that the Cuban population’s rejection of the elections promoted by the regime is increasing, as was seen in last year’s elections.
D Frente also questioned the electoral model imposed by Castroism, in which citizens have no real power to choose the country’s president or those who hold public office.
In this sense, the platform recalled that the 470 candidates selected for the same number of seats in the National Assembly of People’s Power were “proposed by other deputies and filtered by candidacy commissions that are not born from the voters but from organizations registered in the organization chart of the State”.
Created in September 2022, the D Frente collation has received the support of organizations such as the Association of mothers and relatives of political prisoners held by Amnesty, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC), the Cuba Próxima platform, the group Archipelago, the French Association for Democracy in Cuba and the San Isidro Movement.
Its objectives include promoting amnesty for political prisoners; the cessation of repression and harassment against citizens and activists who oppose the Government or its policies; the restitution of the rights of Cubans residing abroad and of any person exiled or prevented from leaving and entering the country by way of political reprisal.
Likewise, the platform works in favor of the full recognition of popular and citizen sovereignty and seeks effective guarantees of freedom of expression, access to information and the press, movement, assembly, demonstration and association in Cuba.
