Christian Liberation Movement calls for electoral laws allowing Cubans “to elect and be elected”
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Havana, Cuba, Sep 4, 2007 / 10:58 am (CNA).- The president of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Paya, said a letter has been sent to the Cuban National Congress calling for the approval of a new electoral law allowing Cubans to run for political office and have free elections, instead of the current system that only allows one candidate to run.

Current law only allows one candidate to run per open seat at the local and national levels, “and therefore voters are not really electing.”  Paya noted that only the regime’s Commission of Candidacies can nominate contenders for political office.

The dissident leader stressed that the Cuban people seek peaceful political change and that for this reason their rights and faculties need to be guaranteed.  The electoral laws and the elections process are where “this right to sovereignty” is either whisked away or fulfilled, Paya said.

“On the one hand, the law is filled with contradictions with the constitution itself and with the right to sovereignty which resides in the people, on the other hand the atmosphere of intolerance and the lack of respect for freedom and civil and political rights make it impossible for the electoral process to be truly democratic,” he continued.

The CLM called on all Cubans to support the demand for new electoral laws, in an atmosphere in which there is respect for the freedom of expression and the right to participate in the life of the country—rights for which “many Cubans are unjustly imprisoned.”

The CLM first called for election reform on December 10, 1997. On May 10, 2002, the organization presented the “Varela Project,” which proposed a referendum for change in Cuba.  More than 11,000 signed a petition supporting the idea.  On October 3, 2003, the Varela Project was presented to the government again, this time with an additional 14,000 signatures.

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: Karen Lee
San Jose, California 09/04/2007 12:54 PM EST
It is sad that the Catholic News Agency should be so ill-informed, and so ready to just print without fact-checking, the false allegations by a man like Paya, simply because he claims to be a "Christian" opponent of Cuba's socialist system. It is completely inaccurate to lump local and national elections. Local elections require that there be at least two candidates (there can be more); only national elections have a single slate, but that is after nationwide, year-long public consultations by the electoral commission, which itself is designed to include representatives of literally every sector of the population whose mandate is to prepare a slate of candidates that is equally diverse. If 51% of the population fails to cast their ballots for any of the 601 candidates for National Assembly, the process must be repeated and new candidates proposed for those slots.
The petitions that were allegedly signed by 11-14,000 citizens (out of 11 million, it should be recalled) only could serve the purpose, according to Cuban law, of having the National Assembly consider their request. It did consider it, and judged that the purpose was purely propagandistic, since the decision-making voting rights they were presumably requesting already are guaranteed under Cuban law, and the intent to change the political and economic system of Cuba inherent in that petition is simply unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of citizens in that country.
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