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Since the voting process is public, any citizen, journalist, or foreign diplomat may attend it.
On Sunday, Cubans will go to the polls to confirm through their vote 470 members of the National Assembly who were elected through previous popular consultation processes.
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To be elected, candidates must win over 50 percent of the valid ballots of their constituency. If they do not achieve the necessary votes, a second round will be held between the most-voted ones. The voting process is public and direct. Therefore, foreign journalists and diplomats may attend it.
The National Assembly is composed of representatives elected by different procedures. About 50 percent of its members are Municipal Assemblies members who were nominated from amongst their counterparts.
The remaining candidates are nominated by civil society organizations such as the National Confederation of Workers (CTC) and the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). They are nominated on the basis of having carried out notable work for the benefit of society.
BioCubaFarma President Eduardo Martinez and Computer Sciences University Rector Raydel Montesino, for example, were nominated as candidates through this merit selection process.
A national commission is responsible for approving all nominations and drawing up the final list of National Assembly candidates.
Unlike other nations, Cuba does not allow the development of campaigns before the electoral processes. Each local electoral commission circulates the candidates' curricula between its constituency and organizes meetings between them and locals.
Candidates do not necessarily have to be militants of the Communist Party (PPC) to become legislators because no party lists are voted in elections. Once candidates become National Assembly members, they serve as legislators for five years and receive no remuneration for this new position. Therefore, they usually maintain their former jobs.
The National Assembly meets regularly in two annual sessions of two or three days each. Besides appointing the Supreme Court judges, the National Assembly elects the Council of Ministers and the Cuban President from among its members.
#FromTheSouth News Bits | Cuba and Venezuela reject US allegations on Human Rights abuses. pic.twitter.com/i48x01LR8H
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) March 21, 2023
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