General Elections in Cuba: Another Sign of Support for the Cuban Revolution

7,608,404 voters —54,882 more than the previous process in 2015— exercised their rights to vote, representing a 85,94 % participation.

These are preliminary results and were given yesterday afternoon by Alina Balseiro Gutierrez, president of the National Electoral Commission (CEN).

In the press conference held at the Jose Marti Memorial, Balseiro highlighted these figures were the result of an updated list of 8,855,213 electors.

11,415 delegates from 12,515 districts were elected in this first round of general elections. Thus, 1,100 districts —which represents 8,78 %— must go to a second round next December 3^rd.

While commenting some of the preliminary results, as CEN is still processing information, Balseiro detailed that the 35,47 % of delegates elected are women and 14,36 % are young people.

Tomas Amaran and Maria Esther Bacallao, CEN deputy president and its secretary, respectively, attended the press conference as well. It was aired that valid ballots represented 91,79%, while annulled and blanked ballots were 4,12 % and 4,07 %, respectively.

Alina Balseiro noted that incidents reported were mostly related to heavy rains in central and eastern provinces.

Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Las Tunas, Granma, and Sancti Spiritus were the most effective provinces this time.

She thanked the collaboration of other bodies such as the representatives of the Ministries of Communications and Justice, ETECSA, the Jose Marti Organization, and mass organizations, and the University of Computer Sciences (UCI).

Likewise, she praised the participation of more than 200,000 electoral authorities who worked with utmost ethic, responsibility, and full adherence to the law.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Diaz / CubaSi Translation Staff