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TO CHOOSE TO BE FREE
- By Oswaldo Payá
We have been promoting changes to the laws for many years, so that the
rights of citizens are respected. We have particularly insisted on a new
electoral law, because that is the key for the people to exercise their
sovereignty, which is the main objective of the Varela Project. The current
electoral law and the systemic violations of freedom of expression and
association are inhibiting the right of Cuban citizens to choose and
to be chosen. You can read the Varela Project by visiting
www.oswaldopaya.org. We begin with the very Electoral Law, Law No. 72.
The nomination:
Only the Candidature Commissions, which are comprised of organizations that
are unconditionally loyal to the Government and whose national leaders are
also in almost all cases leaders of the Communist Party, can propose
candidates for Deputies. The municipal assemblies of the People’s Power,
which are institutions of the government, make the final nomination of
candidates.
Therefore this is in violation of the right established in article 133 of
the Constitution, which states “Cuban citizens, men and woman, have a right
to be elected in the full enjoyment of their political rights.”
Therefore, it is no longer the Cuban citizenry that can be elected, but
rather only those that are designated by these Candidature Commissions.
Although perhaps they are consistent in this as in practice no Cuban
citizen has any political rights. That is to say, government institutions
nominate and its organizations propose, but not the citizenry or the people
as such.
The voting process:
It is also not elections, because according to Law 72 only one candidate is
nominated for each Deputy seat.
Therefore if citizens chose their corresponding Deputy in a district,
only one name could appear on the ballot, because there can only be a sole
candidate. That is why I believe that the “unified vote” was established so
that the names of various candidates appear on the ballot, to give the
imagery of variety, but it is still the same number of candidates as the
number of Deputies to be elected. Citizens can vote for one, for all or for
some, but if one does not want any of the sole candidates, one’s vote does
not count. One’s vote is only counted if it is in the affirmative.
The voter can not choose his deputy among various candidates, nor can they
refuse all candidates because a ballot box to say no does not exist.
Therefore, this is not an election, or even a consultation for voters to
refuse or accept all of the sole candidates.
In my opinion:
In a logical sense, this is truly a joke.
In a legal sense, this is a violation of the Constitution.
In a political sense, this is a grave violation of popular sovereignty.
In an ethical and humane sense, this harms the dignity of
individuals and the right of our people to define their own lives
and their future.
If someone wants to take a look at the Electoral Law before voting, perhaps
you will find it and perhaps you will find a copy of the Constitution, where
you can read in article 7.1 “the National Assembly of the People’s Power is
comprised of Deputies elected by the free, direct, and secret votes of the
electorate, in proportion and in accordance with the process determined by
law.”
I repeat, in my opinion, those who drafted the law established a process
that violates the Constitution because it does not allow for Deputies to be
elected, or to be elected by direct vote. But there is something even graver
that was committed by the authorities and those who exercise power above the
law. If so many people have received “visits” or signals for having not
voted, if there have been
“commissions” these days that have visited house by house to tell citizens
to vote in the ballot of the unified vote and have also in many case asked
if they are voting, then the vote is also not free. It is as if they want to
violate the spirit of individuals, imposing on them what perhaps many do not
want to do. This mechanism of intimidation is not new, and even if the law
were flawless, the culture of fear that is imposed through all of the
repressive and oppressive mechanisms to carry out the electoral farce is a
terrible non-popular tradition.
Never before has such an intense and disproportionate and at the same time
disingenuous electoral campaign been waged. All of the media that the people
pay for has been utilized to promote a vote that will definitely not be an
election. A real marketing campaign is being waged with artists, athletes,
and a parade of everything they think is popular in order to condition the
voters. These are the same voters who are not allowed to listen to other
opinions, just as they are not allowed to choose another alternative, and
are not allowed to elect. It seems that those who make the decisions only
trust the citizenry when they are devoid of the possibility to choose freely.
Those voters who support this government are not even allowed to choose from
among various candidates the one that they believe would best represent the
continuity and efficiency of this system. They are offered sole candidates,
without alternatives.
The Deputies to the legislature that is coming to a close received the
Varela Project legal initiative that was supported by more than 25,000
voters. This petition asks for a Referendum and proposes a new electoral law,
that would allow citizens to nominate and elect their deputies as well as
their representatives at all levels. Many of those who advocated for the
Varela Project are now unjustly imprisoned precisely for defending national
and popular sovereignty, for defending the rights of citizens to choose and
to be chosen freely and democratically.
We do not have the capacity nor the intention to tell any Cuban whether or
not he or she should vote, nor how to vote, but we do have the
responsibility and mission to call on all Cubans to act freely, that is to
say, moved by their own conscience, by honor, by love for their Homeland,
and for liberty, his brethren, and the dignity of his children,
without fear. That is liberation.
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
Havana, January 18, 2008
Sent to the Information Bridge Cuba Miami by the Christian Liberation
Movement in the Exterior on the 19th day of January of 2008. Translation by
The Christian Liberation Movement in the Exterior.
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