Dissidents concede defeat in Cuban local elections

Originally chosen as candidates by a show of hands in Havana, two candidates admit defeat after initial results.

Cuba - local elections
Cuba's municipal elections allow direct voting for delegates to municipal assemblies that deal with local issues like sewers [AFP]

Two dissident candidates in Cuba’s local elections have conceded defeat, dashing any chances of becoming the first officials elected from outside the Communist Party in 40 years.

Hildebrando Chaviano and Yuniel Lopez had been chosen as candidates in Sunday’s elections by a show of hands in Havana neighbourhood nominating meetings and hoped to win two of the 12,589 seats at stake in 168 municipal councils.

Both acknowledged they had no chance of winning after preliminary results showed Chaviano in last place of four candidates, and one of Lopez’s pro-government opponent with twice his vote.

Chaviano, 65, is a government lawyer-turned-independent journalist and Lopez, 26, is an unemployed member of a dissident political party, the AP news agency reported.

A win by either would have been symbolically significant.

Outside observers said the fact that they made it past a first round of show-of-hands voting on the neighbourhood level reflected a government desire to show at least the appearance of softening its monolithic control of the political system.

The elections were held just days after US President Barack Obama met his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro.

Washington and Havana made a historic announcement last year, declaring a rapprochement after decades of Cold War enmity.

The dissidents and foreign press watched the vote-counting without incident, although Lopez complained that he had not been able to watch the full count in one polling place.

He also said that government backers had pressured people in his neighbourhood to vote against him.

Controlled nomination

Cuba’s municipal elections allow direct voting for delegates to municipal assemblies that deal with local issues like sewers and street repairs.

The government controls the nomination and selection of candidates for higher-level bodies including the national assembly, which at least nominally chooses top national officials.

“The vote was clean,” Chaviano said. “The people don’t want change.”

The count of Chaviano’s race in Havana’s relatively upscale Vedado neighbourhood was watched by an unusual number of residents, virtually all in favour of pro-government candidates.

After the vote count was read out, they assembled into a well-organised crowd that shouted pro-revolutionary slogans including “Love live Fidel!” after former President Fidel Castro, who cast his ballot Sunday at his house in Havana.

Narciso Viera, a 71-year-old retired manual labourer, told a US reporter that he voted against Chaviano because “he’s a counter-revolutionary, in the pay of your government for many years”.

Chaviano’s government-edited official candidate biography described him as a counter-revolutionary, and mentioned that he had taken classes at the US Interests Section in Havana. Lopez’s biography contained similar disparaging information.

Backers of Julio Cesar Chaldran, who beat Lopez, marched through their working-class neighbourhood of Arroyo Naranjo singing the national anthem and shouting slogans such as “Long Live the Revolution!”

A group of Lopez’s backers marched alongside shouting back their support for the dissident.

“I’m very happy, despite the defeat, to see people supporting me, despite the campaign against me,” Lopez told AP.

Source: AP