Havana, Feb 3 (Prensa Latina) Despite a cold and persistent rain Cubans went out to vote early in the morning in the general elections that will define the makeup of the National People”s Power Assembly (Parliament).
Prensa Latina news agency verified the opening of several electoral colleges, where there were long lines of people that wanted to be the first to cast their vote at 07:00, local time (12:00 GMT).
Two hours after the opening of all the colleges in Cuba, 2,575,900 people had voted to elect the parliamentarians and the members of the provincial People’s Power Assemblies.
That number, which already increased, represents 29.7 percent of the vote, National Electoral Commission (CEN) Vice president Ruben Perez said in a television report.
In fact, these elections are developing without any difficulty, despite the bad weather in different areas of the country.
The general elections in Cuba have been ongoing normally since 07:00, local time (12:00 GMT), the CEN official remarked.
At 18:00, local time, (23:00 GMT), the electoral colleges will close and the Electoral Table will begin to count the votes publicly.
They will count first the ballots issued for the election of the parliamentarians and then those to elect the delegates to the provincial People’s Power Assemblies.
The 29,957 electoral colleges throughout the country were fitted out with flags, coats of arms, ballot boxes, voting cubicles and also lights to guarantee the exercising of that constitutional right, the CEN reported.
That authority also approved for the occasion establishing around 200 special electoral colleges in bus stations, hospitals and military camps in different localities of the country, where people that can not register and vote in their communities for different reasons will be able to do it in those exceptional circumstances.
All the voting centers will remain open for 11 hours, starting at 07.00 o’clock in the morning, to elect 612 parliamentarians and 1,269 delegates to the provincial People’s Power Assemblies for a five-year period.