Cuba calls elections, unclear if Fidel Castro will stay on
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| Published on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuba's interim leader Raul Castro has scheduled elections without making clear whether his convalescing brother Fidel Castro will remain officially in the political hierarchy, or whether the communist regime's long-time number two will be at its helm for good.
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| Raul Castro |
Raul Castro, 76, has led Cuba since Fidel Castro, 80, underwent intestinal surgery almost one year ago.
The famously bearded revolutionary, a perpetual thorn in the side of the United States, has not appeared in public since. But he has regained weight he lost while ill, and has taken up writing commentaries in state-run media.
Monday, Raul Castro set the date for local (city and town) general elections as October 21 with a second round October 28. He also said elections to the national legislature -- the National Assembly of the People's Power -- held once every five years, would be held at a date to be announced.
The elected legislature selects the 31 members of the Council of State, which in turn chooses Cuba's president and chief of state. Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba January 1, 1959; he has led the Council of State since 1976.
Cuba has not said when or whether Fidel Castro, who turns 81 in August, might return to the role he had before falling ill.
In the early months of his illness, Cuban officials insisted he would be back in his leadership position.
But as time has passed and Raul Castro has assumed control of daily government operations, Cuban authorities have stopped insisting, and now allow that a different role may be in the works.
Last March 15, National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon did say Fidel Castro was recovering, and that he expected Fidel would be able to reelected in 2008.
Still, Cuba has not indicated now whether Fidel would remain as the country's official leader.
Whether Cuba is moving from an unofficially to an officially post-Fidel era should emerge from the electoral process started Monday. It concludes in 2008 with Fidel Castro either staying on, or Cuba officially cementing in place a transition already up and running, in fresh defiance of the United States, which has always insisted communist Cuba's regime would not outlast Fidel Castro.
Cuba maintains it has a democratic system.
Human rights advocates however argue that it has prisoners of conscience, outlaws other political parties, and denies freedoms such as assembly and access to information. Neighborhood watch groups help repress dissent, they say.
Fidel and Raul Castro are the first and second secretaries of the Cuban Communist Party. As the only legal party, it does not officially name candidates for the elections process. | | | | Reads : 129 | | | |
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