Turnout drops, null votes rise in Cuban elections

Posted on Wednesday, 10.24.12

Turnout drops, null votes rise in Cuban elections

The blank and null votes in the Cuban municipal elections, which
increased on Sunday, are considered a sign of disagreement with the
government.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

The blank and null votes cast in Cuba's elections Sunday, considered as
protest votes, rose to 9.3 percent and set one of the highest levels of
the Castro era, official figures showed. The 91 percent turnout was one
of the lowest ever.

Havana blogger Yoani Sanchez noted that the number of Cuban voters who
did not turn up, left their ballots blank or annulled them outstripped
the estimated 800,000 members of the ruling Cuban Communist Party of
Cuba (PCC).

National Electoral Commission President Alina Balseiro late Monday
described the balloting to elect about 14,500 members of municipal
councils as "enthusiastic and calm" and noted that 33.5 percent of those
elected were women.

Cuban elections do not really reflect voters' sentiments because the
Communist Party is the only legal party and controls the process
tightly, no campaigning is allowed and no dissident has ever been
accepted as a candidate for any elected post.

But casting blank votes or damaging ballots to nullify them is a willful
act of opposition, said Ted Henken, a professor at New York's Baruch
College who studies Cuba and co-authored an academic paper that in part
dealt with the elections.

A group of "democratic socialists" who back the government on many
issues in fact had urged voters to nullify their votes Sunday by drawing
a "D" on their ballots to demand direct votes for president and human
rights.

Official results from Sunday showed 4.9 percent of the ballots were left
blank and 4.4 percent were null. The total of 9.3 percent was one of the
highest known, compared to 8.89 percent in 2010, 7.7 in 2008, 5.9 in
2003, 7.2 in 1997 and 7 in 1993, according to official and news media
reports.

"The Cuban state is increasingly weak and is less able to rule
uncontested," Henken wrote in an email to El Nuevo Herald. "Cuban
society is seeing a growth in independent, critical projects and groups,
and this demonstrates that more everyday Cubans are losing fear of not
toeing the official electoral line when voting."

Turnout, a weaker signal of opposition because it can be affected by
factors such as weather, dropped to 91 percent on Sunday, from 95.8
percent in 2010, 95.4 percent in 2007 and 98.7 percent in 1984,
according to official and news media figures.

"Interest in the elections here? None" said Eunices Madaula, a dissident
who lives in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. "Elections here don't
bring any changes, so people don't care."

Andy Gomez, senior fellow at the University of Miami's Institute for
Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, said that during his last trip to the
island he also noticed more people had become "apolitical … They are
disenchanted with politics, period."

Balseiro said more than 8.1 million of the 8.5 million registered voters
— citizens 16 and older — turned out Sunday to elect about 14,500 seats
in 168 municipal councils throughout the nation of 11.2 million people.
She added that 7.3 million votes were valid.

Those elected in the municipal balloting later can become candidates in
successive elections for the provincial councils and the National
Assembly of People's Power. The national vote is expected in February,
and the new assembly is then all but certain to select Raúl Castro to a
second five-year term as head of the government.

One unsurprising loser was Sirley Ávila León, 53, who was seeking
reelection to the Majibacoa municipal council in Las Tunas province but
gave a recent interview to the Miami-based Radio/TV Marti alleging a
lack of government services in her district.

The self-described "revolutionary" said she came in second, with 168
votes, because her current district of Limones was reapportioned to
three different districts following the interview. The winner, with 475
votes, was the incumbent.

Of the 51 votes cast in the part of her old district where she remained
a candidate, Avila added, 41 favored her.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/24/3064004/turnout-drops-null-votes-rise.html