Cubans were called to the polls this Sunday, March 26 to renew the National Assembly of People’s Power, the country’s unicameral parliament. 470 candidates were in the running for the 470 seats. In Cuba’s one-party system, none of these candidates represent the opposition. The provisional turnout is 70.33%, according to the National Electoral Council. A figure larger than the final participation in the last elections.
With our special correspondent in Havana, Stefanie Schuler
The Castro government has a habit of qualifying the elections as “ big popular festival “. But after the vote, Cuban feelings were mixed, to say the least.
Whether or not they voted on Sunday, the inhabitants of the capital agree on one point: the country is going through a serious economic crisis, which is severely affecting the living conditions of the population. And that is precisely why this mother voted for the communist candidates :
” MPs are not going to be able to improve the country’s economic situation overnight. But I think the government is making efforts to resolve this crisisshe says. Today, Cuba is a different country than it was five or ten years ago thanks to the measures taken to allow private entrepreneurship or to improve the job offer within state-owned enterprises. »
The under 30s are not very interested in the ballot
This student did not vote. Electoral campaigns being prohibited in Cuba, he regrets not knowing the candidates and criticizes the absence of any political program. For this young man, Parliament is nothing more than a recording chamber :
” To tell the truth, I would like to vote for a person who truly represents me, for a person who would not arrive in Parliament to obey and say yes to everything. Cubans under 30 or 25 are no longer interested in elections at all. Young people know that nothing will change, everything will continue the same way, so it will not be a solution to their problems. “, he testifies.
And the student confides that he will not trust the abstention figures that will be communicated by the government.
►Also read : Cuba: a vote without stake in Parliament, against a backdrop of economic crisis