Those who, in good or bad faith, criticize the actual Cuban political system are willingly or unwillingly unaware of the fact that the Cuban Parliament is supported by five main pillars of a genuine, real democracy, to wit:
* The people freely and democratically proposes and nominates its candidates.
* The people elects them by simple majority in a direct and secret ballot.
* The people can recall them at any moment during their term of office.
* The people systematically oversees their work.
* The people participates with them in taking the most important decisions.
Cubandemocracy's Blog 
I used to live in Cuba 20 yeas ago. At that time there was a couple of problems with democracy:
The people freely and democratically proposes and nominates its candidates.
1- Candidates had to be proposed in a meeting organized by the Communist Party (PCC).
2- The organizers had previously selected the candidates approved by the PCC.
3- The organizers had previously instructed the leaders of the Defense Committees (CDR) and some party members to propose the “pre – selected” candidates during the meeting.
4- If a citizen proposed a candidate not in line with Party policy, the organizers would aggressively confront him/her. People were afraid of challenging Party officials. Candidates not approved by the PCC could never be nominated.
The people elects them by simple majority in a direct and secret ballot.
But only among those candidates pre-approved by the PCC.
The people systematically oversees their work
People don’t know how the elected candidates are really working. The only information they have is provided by the PCC controlled media.
I have included your blog in my list of Blogs Sobre Cuba
Regards,
Al Godar
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I have lived in Cuba all the time and probably I have a similar age that you. Your argument about the Party role in the electoral process is not true. It’s clear that you do not know well Cuban electoral process and I would like to invite you to visit Cuba to observe and to ask somebody on this subject. If somebody is proposed, even though the Party, as you said, would have not approved him, only the people in public meeting can decide his nomination as a candidate.
The elected candidate must meet with the electorate, to respond and explain them about the different affairs concerning the community and his or her management..
You live in another country, where certainly there is an electoral system which has many disadvantages in comparison with Cuban electoral and political system.
Of course, you can disagree with our political system by different reasons, but you should recognize that in my country there is a genuine democracy, and its better expression is exactly its electoral system.
I know that all human work can be improved, but Cubans are working hard to achieve that and we are happy to live in Cuba and enjoy its freedom and its social justice.
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cubandemocracy // February 12, 2010 at 10:21 pm (edit)
If you say you were born in Cuba and now you live in another country, you should, as a Cuban who lived in this island and know it very well, tell honestly the reality here the way it is, and tell other people how the elections were in our country before 1959 when there were many political parties, by the way very corrupted all of them, and did not represent the interests of the people, but their own interests. Also, those who could be candidates and run for elections were the rich people with great cuantities of money to pay for them, and the elections were always characterized by fraud and bibrery.
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13/02/2010 en 15:50 | In reply to Al Godar.
I have lived in Cuba all the time and probably I have a similar age that you. Your argument about the Party role in the electoral process is not true. It’s clear that you do not know well Cuban electoral process and I would like to invite you to visit Cuba to observe and to ask somebody on this subject. If somebody is proposed, even though the Party, as you said, would have not approved him, only the people in public meeting can decide his nomination as a candidate.
The elected candidate must meet with the electorate, to respond and explain them about the different affairs concerning the community and his or her management..
You live in another country, where certainly there is an electoral system which has many disadvantages in comparison with Cuban electoral and political system.
Of course, you can disagree with our political system by different reasons, but you should recognize that in my country there is a genuine democracy, and its better expression is exactly its electoral system.
I know that all human work can be improved, but Cubans are working hard to achieve that and we are happy to live in Cuba and enjoy its freedom and its social justice.
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Thanks for your comment, but sorry to say that does not fit the reality of what happens in the elections as Cuba. The reality is:
1. Candidate proposed and elected in open assemblies and the PCC is not involved in it.
2.The candidates are freely given by residents of the constituency, is not true to say that the Party is who say who have to be proposed.
3 The organizers do not intervene to say that someone is not given, so yes, if it can happen that the Revolution disaffected people and working for the enemy tries to boycott the assembly by way of provocation, and then are the voters themselves who will provide answers to the provocative
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Hello Al Godar,
I’m sorry my friend for notifying that you are really wrong. So many years lived in the island, and eventually you know almost nothing about Cuban democratic election system. You heard bells, but you don’t know where. Times you lived in Cuba you voted mechanically. Didn’t you participate in the CDR meetings to choose your candidate? This person should be an example to follow and with the force to lead and respond to the concerns of the framed area population.
Remember, there is a democracy in our island, so you, I mean people, vote for someone to represent you (majority), the candidate with the merits emerges from the mass of neighbours, of course in our blocks you know we have representatives of the Communist Party of Cuba, of the Cuban Women Federation, of theYoung Communist League, and in these meetings they are present to, of course, they are our leaders in the community, BUT they have nothing to do with the people election, it’s just the mass of the neighbours who decide at the end.
Well, my friend I invite you to read more about this issue, and then yes, we accept criticism.
My regards,
Leydiana Rodríguez
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