This Sunday, when Cubans voted for its representatives to the national and provincial parliaments, they were casting one of the most important votes in recent decades. After the Sixth Congress and the First Conference of the Cuban Communist Party in April 2011 and January 2012 respectively, and after starting the process of “updating” of the national economy, which has reached all areas and sectors of society and policy, the next five years will be crucial for the country.
The closest and most visible change will be in the same presidency of the National Assembly of the People’s Power (Parliament), when Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, president and in office since February 24, 1993, hands over his responsibilities to his successor. After 20 years chairing the Cuban parliament, Alarcón was not nominated as a candidate for this election and possibly fill roles in the international arena of interest to the government of President Raul Castro.
Once the lawmakers are elected, we must await the elections to the National Assembly, which will decide whether to assume the generational renewal in all areas urged for by the Cuban president or just of the leadership and vision of the parliament.
Regarding the deputies, for five years they will have the responsibility to legislate and provide the Cuban Government and State with the legal and constitutional frameworks for the coming changes- economic mainly-that, as Marino Murillo announced in the last session of the Assembly, will be deeper, more complex and fundamental.
Some of the possible changes to the Constitution will be, for example, Article 32, which deprives of Cuban citizenship to those who adopt from another country. This is an issue that affects especially Cuban citizens who have taken Spanish citizenship. Regarding the issue, something is resolved with immigration regulations enforced on January14, where they keep their category as Cubans, even those who have chosen to emigrate.
Another case is the addition to the constitution of the non-agricultural cooperatives as forms of property, as this only recognizes as cooperatives the agricultural one. This is a crucial point for the state and the Cuban government in its intentions to promote new forms of production and generation of income and taxes in order to achieve higher levels of productivity and the required economic organization.
Similarly, parliamentarians will be responsible for approving the new state budget, which will have the particularity in the coming years, the results we can achieve the implementation of the new tax law. Also they will be responsible for their gradual operation, pending the necessary economic conditions for different taxes, such as the one applied to the salary.
On the legislative front, too, the new National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP) must bring a new order on the communication processes of the nation, in search of a project in this area, consistent with the results of the Congress party in 2011 and to provide identity image and timely and efficient communication channels to all institutions and the general population of the island.
A case that has been pending for years is, likewise, regarding the new Family Code, which has been presented to Cuban lawmakers for years and has not even been discussed. Its approval is considered essential, especially for the Cuban Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, for the support that can make their rights to form legally recognized couples.
At local and provincial levels, and after the general elections Cuba 2012-2013 are completed, governmental and economic experiments of young Artemisa and Mayabeque provinces should begin to be widespread, resulting in the greater independence in the administration of local governments that already has been announced and / or testing in several parts of the country.
In fact, with the new tax law, the first of these changes was introduced, when Municipal Administration Councils became the recipients of a greater amount of tax revenue. In addition, in the municipalities for the last couple of years projects of local development initiative are underway, focused on attracting foreign and local currency for reinvestment in the needs of the municipalities.
Of great importance will be also the required changes in the management ability of the delegates to the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power, who currently lack effective mechanisms to solve the problems of their constituency- electoral base in Cuba.
Another topic, on which the leadership of the CPC and the Cuban government, currently unified in its two leading figures, will focus on the next five years, will be in the separation of party and governmental-administrative functions that intermingle today, as President Raul Castro says, and each should take their respective place, especially at local and provincial levels.
Finally, one of the most striking results of this term of office of five years that ANPP deputies begin shall be that, if Raul is reelected to office, it may be his last term because, in January 2012, in the 1st National Conference of the PCC he said ” we advance in the definition of all the necessary adjustments to be made to the Constitution of the Republic and the complementary legislative framework, among other issues, we will implement the decision to limit tenure in principal political and state positions to two consecutive five-year terms. In this regard, I believe that once the relevant authorities have defined and agreed upon the policies, we can initiate their gradual implementation without waiting for the constitutional reform, (…) “. Raul Castro, after assuming the post of First Secretary of the PCC at the Sixth Congress of the organization, said in its conclusions that assumed the appointment as his “last task” on the preservation and development of socialism in Cuba.
After the elections this Sunday, February 3, with their second and third rounds, where needed, for Cubans who have chosen to make up the “highest organ of state power”, as stated in the Constitution, in times where major changes in the national reality are announced and there is a necessary new conceptualization of the economic-political and social development model in Cuba.
The next five years, with the implications described here-general and light approaches to what may be the nation’s life-will be crucial in the direction and effects that changes made earlier can have in the pursuit of building socialism from a Cuban perspective.
