Almost Seven Million Voters Ratified New Cuban Constitution

The Constitution of the Republic of Cuba has been ratified by 6.8 million voters of a total of nine million 298 thousand 277 registered

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) described as favorable the results of the referendum held on Sunday, in which almost seven million voters ratified the constitutional text, assured today Alina Balseiro, president of the entity.

According to Balseiro, the preliminary results show the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba has been ratified by 6.8 million voters of a total of nine million 298 thousand 277 registered voters. The ‘Yes’ vote represents 86.8 percent of Cubans who exercised their right to decide.

Meanwhile, 706 thousand 400 persons voted ‘No’, representing nine percent of all those who voted and 7.6 percent of the total registered persons with that right.

Balseiro detailed the commission worked with 12 thousand 635 districts (122 abroad) and 25 thousand 345 polling stations (one thousand 48 abroad).

Working in the election were over 225 thousand authorities and collaborators (students of medium and higher education levels), besides an accompaniment of more than 200 thousand elementary school students who guarded the ballot boxes, said the Commission president.

Of the total of ballots in the boxes, seven million 522 thousand 569, representing 95.8 percent, were valid, while 198 thousand 674 or 2.5 percent were blank and null ones amounted to 127 thousand 100 for 1.6 percent, reported the NEC.

In all, nine million 298 thousand 277 Cubans were summoned to express their opinion on the new Magna Carta, approved in December by the National Assembly of People’s Power (parliament), after a nation-wide discussion by neighbors, students, workers, professionals who proposed changes, to eliminate or add to the letter of the Constitution.

The text consecrates the irrevocability of socialism in the island and the rector role of the Communist Party in this society.

This Constitution expands the individual rights and guarantees, strengthens the people’s power in municipalities, promotes foreign investment, contains important changes in the structure of the State and recognizes several forms of property, among them the socialist of all the people, private and cooperative.