After officially constituting the national and provincial electoral commissions, other organizational phases continue in Cuba with a view to completing the call for general elections.

On October 21^st, Cubans will select their delegates to municipal assemblies and go on to its second round a week later, but only in areas where none of the candidates win more than half of the votes cast.

Preparations for general elections are being undertaken by 168 municipal electoral commissions, while at the base level voter lists effectively correspond with local residents.

According to the custom of the Cuban electoral system, electoral rolls are automatically updated with the names of local residents in each electoral district in which their neighbors are divided.

Voter lists are confirmed by members of electoral commissions and mass organizations, especially the Committees for Defense of the Revolution, present in every block of towns and villages.

In this simple but strategic process, as well as in the others, the Communist Party does not intervene as a political entity.

In Cuba’s electoral system, candidates to form the People's Power government assemblies are openly nominated at public block meetings, then elected through the vote of the residents of the jurisdiction.

They are the ones who best know their local residents and even know if people with more merits have any difficulties that limit their performance as delegates of the People's Power.

This does not prohibit the Communist Party’s participation, because a considerable number of candidates proposed at the base level belong to the leading organization of Cuban society.

However, its inclusion on the ballot of candidates is not supported by this integration but by the successes, political and cultural development, along with honesty, sense of solidarity and professional competence of persons likely to be proposed.

From this very initial process of the general elections in Cuba, the concrete action covers the largest possible number of citizens within government tasks.

Residents of each neighborhood, therefore, understand that their responsibility is important because they will select the person who, without abandoning their productive work or service, will become the immediate link between the citizens and their government structures.

The popular base, mainly in the neighborhood, takes in the Caribbeancountry's democracy a key role, in contrast to current patterns in force in other countries.

This is another distinctive feature of Cuban democracy, based on the history, idiosyncrasies and requirements of a socialist society.

Thus, to benefit from the success of the general elections, Cubans are ready to apply the lessons learned from their previous processes and experiences, with an eye toward strengthening the transparency and honesty of their electoral process.

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