To Vote or Not to Vote

To Vote or Not to Vote / Yoani Sanchez
Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sanchez

MEETING – Candidate Nomination… In the basement in front of the
superintendent's apartment. We expect you to attend ON TIME.

Cuba's municipal elections for delegates to the People's Power are now
getting underway again. The official media repeatedly tells us that
"this is the best democracy in the world," and it's time to nominate
from among our "most capable." The streets are filled with billboards
referring to the topic and in every neighborhood voter lists are
published. The atmosphere would be similar to that of any other country
during the period of nominating local representatives, if not for one
crucial details. There is no expectation that this process influences
any national decisions. No possibility it will produce any change.

The electoral machinery is strictly controlled. The inhabitants of each
area vote for a biography and a photo but have not right to ask the
potential district delegate what he or she thinks about specific
problems. That is, we put a ballot in a box but without knowing whether
the candidate is for or against increasing self-employment, prefers to
keep or eliminate emigration and travel restrictions, much less if they
would like to end or lengthen Obligatory Military Service. The Electoral
Act itself declares that there can be no political campaigns and this
leaves the population with just some resumes and portraits from which we
must pick one.

Thus, it gives rise to situations as absurd as marking the ballot next
to a certain name because it has the face of a good person, or because
they graduated as an engineer and this indicates they're hardworking.
People choose someone who has three children because being a father or
mother must guarantee honesty, of they pick a representative for the
simple fact of having run into him or her — now or then — at the market.
The final result is that the neighborhood delegates who some day reach a
seat in the National Assembly vote unanimously for all the laws
presented to them. And never, never, do they dare to propose any change.

18 September 2012

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