Reflections on the electoral fraud in Cuba

“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this - who will count the votes, and how.” - Josef Stalin (1923)

Raul Castro goes to "vote." What is wrong with this picture?

 In a free society one elects who will represent them and one can petition their neighbors to vote for them and run for office. In a communist regime one decides on whether or not to suffer the consequences of not affirming the dictatorship by voting in an exercise in which there is no choice in representation. The Castro regime held what it called "municipal elections" on Sunday, November 26, 2017. The act of electing who will rule was made by those in power before the publicized vote took place.

This has not taken place in Cuba since 1950.

Yoani Sanchez reported over twitter that "[t]hese municipal elections were presented by the official propaganda as a backing for the "legacy" of Fidel Castro, it was very important for the Government to achieve greater participation, just 3 months before the end of Raúl Castro's presidency."

#Cuba Estas elecciones municipales fueron presentadas por la propaganda oficial como un espaldarazo al "legado" de Fidel Castro y era muy importante para el #Gobierno lograr una mayor participación, justo a menos de tres meses de la salida de la presidencia de Raúl Castro. pic.twitter.com/TmRtvtxGsj

— Yoani Sánchez (@yoanisanchez) November 28, 2017

There was an electoral farce in Cuba this past Sunday. The 58 year old communist dictatorship in Cuba blocked 175 opposition candidates from running. Only one political party, the Cuban Communist Party recognized as legal in the constitution. St. Kitts and Nevis Oberver in the November 27, 2017 article Cuba Marks Castro’s Death with Pseudo Democratic Elections reported that "[s]tate-run media is championing the belief that the elections are a way for citizens to show support for Fidel Castro’s ideas. In the provincial and national votes, candidates were chosen by commissions made up of Communist Party representatives."

Finally, ballots marked Plebiscite were not counted and reported. Rosa María Payá of CubaDecide reported over twitter that the "[e]lectoral college arbitrarily denied the request to count the canceled ballots, without answering arguments of the claim. Now there is a spectacular siege of State Security to violate our citizens' rights and the Electoral Law itself."

Colegio electoral denegó arbitrariamente la solicitud de contar las boletas anuladas, sin responder los argumentos de reclamación. Ahora hay un aparatoso cerco de la Seguridad del Estado para violar nuestro derechos ciudadanos y la propia Ley Electoral.

— Rosa María Payá A. (@RosaMariaPaya) November 26, 2017

 teleSUR, a Chavista news outlet with a pro-Castro slant was tone deaf in the November 27, 2017 title it picked to report on the proceedings in Cuba last Sunday: "Elections in Cuba: Like Nowhere Else!" The first paragraph continues in "awe" of the "election" in Cuba reporting, "No banners. No posters. No placards. No advertisements. No slogans. No campaigning. It is Election Day in Cuba, yet I cannot see any sign of it. Some 27,000 candidates are competing for 605 seats in the Cuban National Assembly, yet I cannot see one."

The reason for the lack of campaigning to convince every day Cubans to vote for them is because they do not have a say. Cuba is a dictatorship, elections are a farce, and a public relations campaign to legitimize the dictatorship.

This is not a choice but a farce or a fraud masquerading as an election in a Stalinist exercise of control.