Cuba - March 2023

Cuba held parliamentary elections on 26 March to select 470 deputies of the National Assembly, with no participation of international observers. The electoral process has been condemned by Cubans, and internationally denounced as ‘undemocratic’. Official participation figures have raised doubts, and human rights groups have highlighted acts of repression with coercion tactics and repression against activists in the context of the election. All opposition was barred from access to power, with only 470 candidates contending for the same number of seats, of which 55.3 per cent will be held by women. In view of the severe political restrictions, opposition groups called on Cubans to abstain from voting, claiming elections in the country’s unchallenged one-party system are fraudulent, with no formal or international oversight.

Official government reports claim voter turnout was 75.92 per cent, marking an increase from the 68.5 per cent participation registered in municipal elections last November. This was, however, a poor turnout by Cuban standards and the lowest seen for legislative elections since the 1959 Revolution. The trend of growing abstention over the last decade indicates an erosion of confidence in Cuba’s communist regime with increasing public discontent amid socio-economic hardships.

Sources: Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Transparencia Electoral, Government of Cuba, InfoBae, Euro News, El País