POLITICS-CUBA:
Women, Local Elections
and People’s Power
By Patricia Grogg
PLACETAS, Cuba, (IPS)
- Marisol Cabrera has
become quite at ease as
president of the
municipal government of
the Cuban town of
Placetas. But nine years
ago it was another
story, and she herself
had doubts. "I wondered
whether I was capable of
this, it felt like a
huge challenge. There
was no tradition of
women in this post," she
says.
The town was also going
through some hard times.
Early this decade its
three sugar refineries
closed down and the
industrial sector
declined because of a
shortage of raw
materials.
Conversion of the sugar
plantations into fields
for crops and cattle and
diversification of
production in some of
the factories averted
collapse.
Placetas, a town of
71,000, is located in
the exact centre of
Cuba, 268 kilometres
from Havana in the
province of Villa Clara.
As tends to happen to
women in similar
situations, Cabrera had
to work twice as hard as
a man to demonstrate
that she was up to the
job.
"I have always been
self-confident, but when
I was elected president
of the municipal
government I had my
doubts. I felt that I
was on probation, and I
drove myself hard. Now I
don’t feel I have to be
everywhere at once.
We’re a team," she said.
First she had to
overhaul the technical
advisory council, which
was not functioning. She
sought cooperation from
the Central University
of Las Villas, and with
their help set up a
scientific network and
trained new personnel. A
consultation was held
with local residents,
and an assessment of
Placetas’ most pressing
problems emerged.
Then a local development
programme was drawn up
to pursue sustainable
advances in agriculture.
"Since 2002, we have
worked very hard. We
learned to think things
through for ourselves,"
said Cabrera, 52, who is
married and has a
23-year-old son about to
graduate in veterinary
medicine.
"I’m a primary school
teacher. As teachers, we
are trained to guide
learning processes,
which makes it easier to
communicate with people.
To a certain extent,
that training helped me
in my local government
work," she says.
On Sunday, Cabrera’s
track record will come
under public scrutiny as
she and two male
candidates stand in
local elections for a
delegate to the
municipal Assembly of
People’s Power (APP),
and the people in their
constituency cast their
votes.
The municipal elections
will be held all over
the country, to be
followed at an as yet
unspecified date in 2008
by elections for the
provincial assemblies
and the National
Assembly of People’s
Power, the country’s
single-chamber
parliament.
To continue in office,
Cabrera must be
reelected as the APP
delegate for her "circunscripción",
or constituency.
"This isn’t the first
time I’ve been asked
what I would do if I’m
not reelected. I always
say that the job title
isn’t what’s important.
I would go on working
for my country," she
says.
Cabrera is one of 212
women who have a seat in
the National APP.
Cuba is sub-divided into
14 provinces with 169
municipalities, and one
special district (Isla
de la Juventud, an
island). At present
there are 32 women
presidents of municipal
assemblies, and 33 women
vice presidents. At
provincial level, there
are three women vice
presidents, but no woman
is president of a
provincial APP.
In this round of
municipal elections,
which are held every
two-and-a-half years,
37,328 candidates are
standing for the
position of constituency
delegate in municipal
APP. Of this total,
10,799 are women, 1,600
more than the number of
women candidates who
stood in the 2005
elections.
One delegate is elected
from each constituency,
from a field of at least
two and up to eight
candidates who have been
nominated in
neighbourhood assemblies
by a simple show of
hands. Later the
delegates elected on
Sunday will go on to
elect the members of the
municipal assemblies,
and each assembly will
choose its president and
vice-president.
The system has its
detractors, who argue
that free elections are
impossible without a
multi-party system. But
Cabrera says that in her
view, it is one of the
most democratic systems
in the world.
"It isn’t the governing
Communist Party that
nominates candidates,
but local people
themselves, and the
election doesn’t depend
on how much money
candidates have," she
says.
As an example of
participatory democracy,
she points out that
every two months
delegates must report
their actions to their
voters, and they can be
removed from office if
people are not
satisfied.
She also says that
delegates are not
magicians who solve
problems at the wave of
a wand, but are supposed
to represent the needs
and interests of the
people who elected them,
to state institutions.
"If the local people who
elected the delegate
have a housing problem,
for example, the
delegate passes the
request on to the
Housing Institute for a
solution. It’s not the
delegate who has to
provide the solution,"
she says.
The Cuban constitution
of 1992 defines the
municipal and provincial
APP as "the higher local
bodies of state power,
invested with the
highest authority to
govern under the law
within their respective
boundaries."
"For the exercise of
their functions the
local Assemblies of
People’s Power find
support in the People’s
Councils and the
initiative and broad
participation of the
population and they act
in close coordination
with the social and mass
organisations," it goes
on.
The National Assembly of
People’s Power, which
like the provincial
assemblies is renewed
every five years by a
"free, direct and
secret" vote, is "the
supreme body of state
power and the only body
invested with
constituent and
legislative authority.
It represents and
expresses the sovereign
will of all the people,"
the constitution says.
Once elected, National
Assembly deputies must
elect the Council of
State from amongst their
number. The council is
made up of a president,
a first vice president,
five other vice
presidents, a secretary
and 23 other members.
The president of the
Council of State, the
office to which Cuban
leader Fidel Castro was
reelected for the sixth
consecutive term in
2003, is the head of
state and head of
government.
But on Jul. 31, 2006,
the Cuban president
underwent emergency
surgery and temporarily
delegated his powers to
his brother Raúl Castro,
the first vice president
and defence minister.
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