Cuba's Fidel Castro: didn't expect to live to 87

[hack89]

158. Lets look at what Arnold August has to say about picking candidates for Parlimentry elections

What is the equivalent of this procedure on the national level, for the Parliament? How are candidates for deputies nominated? Unlike the municipal elections, there is only one candidate per seat in the parliament. When I met with the National Candidacy Commission 10 years ago in 1998 and once again last week, while also carrying out on the spot observations I have come once again to the same conclusion, but I believe in a much more profound way.

Fourthly, candidacy commissions then carried out a massive consultation involving over 2.5 people in their work places and neighbourhoods where these pre-candidates live and work in order to get grass roots opinions from the base on whether the proposed individuals are worthy or no to work in the Peoples Power

Sixthly, it is the municipal assemblies where the pre-candidates are assigned to run for elections which have to approve the list proposed by the candidate commission. The municipal delegates have the right to refuse one of more candidates, which happens from time to time and the candidacy commission in these cases has to propose another. Once the list is finalised, the pre-candidates become candidates.

The final step takes place tomorrow, January 20, when the voters have the final say. Each candidate has to get at least 50% of the valid votes in order to be elected. Last week I had asked one of the candidates for the provincial assembly from the Plaza de la Revolucion Municipality if she was nervous about the vote that is whether she would get 50%. The recently elected Municipal delegate confided that in fact she was worried, not because any prestige or privilege was at stake (there are no privileges, only more hard voluntary work at the same salary) in being elected provincial delegate. Her apprehension was to avoid disappointing her work mates, neighbours, mass organisation colleagues in the union and women’s federation and fellow municipal delegates all of whom had all showed confidence in her. She simply did not want to let them down. So the 50% (even though no one has yet lost an election) is still present in the minds of many candidates. .

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1748.html

So only one candidate on the ballot for national offices, the Candidacy Commissions provide the name of that single candidate, and no one has ever lost an election.

You really want to call that democracy?