Cuban authorities report on the referendum of the Family Code

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Autoridades cubanas informan sobre el referendo del Código de las Familias

On September 25, the new Family Code will be submitted to a popular referendum in Cuba, a step that will decide on the entry into force of this important legislation. To discuss the values ​​defended by the Law and report on the organization of the referendum, the Minister of Justice, members of the drafting commission and the president of the National Electoral Council (CEN) appeared at the Round Table on Thursday.

At the beginning of his speech on the program, the Minister of Justice, Oscar Silvera Martínez, recalled that one year ago today, version 22 of the preliminary draft of the Family Code, the result of the drafting commission, was published on his agency's website of the text and of the group of experts, specialists and professors from various institutions.

Since then, he stressed, the success of the Cuban president's decision to make the content of the draft public has been confirmed.

The minister stressed that the text is the result of collective work, which began in 2019 with the constitution of the working group. "The members of the drafting commission contributed their ideas with the conviction that they were preparing an important bill for Cuba and its people."

He also highlighted the specialized consultation process, in which 47 institutions and social groups participated. "All this was strengthening the Code."

The minister recalled that this analysis resulted in changes in 60% of the articles of the draft.

“The specialized consultation of the project of the Family Code meant an innovation within the process of legislative creation of the country, because from then on everyone was convinced that it was essential, on the one hand, to publish the drafts – up to that moment it was made public until that came to the National Assembly – and on the other to carry out the specialized consultation”, Silvera Martínez argued.

According to the minister, since that step initiated with the Code, all the legal norms derived from the intense and complex process of updating the Cuban legal system have been subjected to specialized consultations. For example, it is currently happening with the preliminary draft of the Social Communication Law.

Another significant moment highlighted by Silvera Martínez was the analysis of the deputies in December 2021 when the National Assembly approved the project that would be submitted to popular consultation.

“It is an intense debate because the deputies delve into it, study, question and contribute, in a respectful exercise”.

The popular consultation, in which 6,481,200 voters participated with 336,595 interventions in more than 79,000 meetings, led to changes to 49.15% of the content of the project.

The minister also meant the intense and disciplined work of the more than 30 members of the drafting commission.

In the minister's opinion, the preparation of the Code was always a process characterized by being broad, democratic and contributing, with diverse views from science and the convictions and cultural elements of the nation.

Regarding the referendum on September 25, Silvera Martínez reiterated that it would be the first in the history of Cuba, since until now only constitutional referendums had been held.

He said that Cuba would be the first country to submit a Family Code to popular consultation and referendum, a process defined in the eleventh transitory provision of the Constitution.

What value does the referendum have if the National Assembly has already approved the Family Code? The minister explained that Parliament, by constitutional mandate, is the only body with constitutional and legislative powers in the nation. For this reason, last July he submitted the Code project for approval, which received the green light from the deputies.

In this way, the Code became Law number 156, but for its full validity it must be approved in a referendum with the positive vote of the majority of the people, he reaffirmed.

"The Assembly has not diminished one iota the power or the responsibility that the Constitution gave to the people, that is why it is going to a referendum," he stressed.

The minister noted that the Code protects all institutions of family law, eliminates any vestige of discrimination in the family and rejects violence.

The referendum will validate or not the validity of this legal norm, Silvera Martínez reiterated and said that the process has strictly adhered to the constitutional mandates and prerogatives given to the National Assembly, the Electoral Council and the consultation and referendum institutions.

Elections in Cuba. Photo: Cubadebate Archive.

How is the referendum process organized?

According to the preparations for the referendum, Alina Balseiro Gutiérrez, president of the National Electoral Council, explained that the voting processes in Cuba and abroad have been organized in parallel and, for this; the electoral structures have been updated.

“We update, for example, the constituency authorities, which play a fundamental role and number 12,512 in the country. When we already had the structure in place, they all took office in solemn acts where they took their oath. That is important because, who are the constituency authorities? Who are the authorities of the table? They are the people themselves who take possession to develop this process voluntarily”, he explained.

Also, he mentioned that this structure was joined by a group of authorities and people who accompany the operation of the electoral act, say supervisors and collaborators, for example. They have also had meetings with pioneers and their guides, guaranteeing an average of six to eight pioneers per school.

"When you add up that entire people with the permanent authorities, there are more than 200,000 people in the organization of the process," he stressed.

Regarding the training of these citizens, Balseiro Gutiérrez said that two officers have been developed, where, among other issues, the electoral authorities were explained what a legislative referendum is, since it is a process that does not happen often.

Among the actions that have been carried out, he highlighted the creation of logistics, insurance and documentation that supports the process, from the electoral law to the complementary rules. All the brochures that support the data and results of the different electoral steps have been created, which gives the process transparency and adherence to the truth.

Balseiro Gutiérrez highlighted the good results of the dynamic test carried out last Sunday abroad, where there are 123 constituencies and more than 1,000 schools.

Moreover, he pointed out that next September 18 would be an important day, because the voting abroad and the dynamic test in Cuba will take place. "The two exercises will take place at the same time and the systems are prepared to have the actions in unison, which will be a complex process," he acknowledged.

He also referred to the presentation and verification of the list of voters, a previous step for voting, with the guarantee in Cuba that the electoral registry is public, permanent and ex officio.

“First they gave us all the lists and they were put in the constituency, so that people could go and review them. In unison, the constituency electoral commissions, supported by the polling stations, began a process of house-to-house visits and verification,” explained the CEN president.

“It was an important exercise for 15 days. All the results of that verification were dispatched with the electoral registry and it was possible to review and update more than 83% of all the electoral lists of the more than 137,000 CDRs in the country. Right now almost all the lists are being printed, which must be signed by the electoral authorities of the municipalities to validate them and expose them to the voters,” he said.

In the event that a voter is not at their place of residence on voting day, Balseiro Gutiérrez reported that there are more than 224 special schools where they can vote. They are located mainly in hotels, terminals, hospitals, among other places.

In addition to the existence of these colleges, he stressed that any person who is far from their place of residence can go to the nearest college and exercise their right to vote.

Balseiro Gutiérrez also announced that all the municipalities already have the ballots, which are being counted and validated.

Regarding logistics, he reported that the transportation, communication and insurance plans for the 25th have been approved and that there is the second position of all the information processing centers.

"All Etecsa centers in the country are available to the electoral authorities and there is the computer, the telephones and what is necessary to process the information," he said. In addition, he pointed out that the electoral councils will have generators, to avoid unforeseen events due to the energy situation.

As for the more than 417,000 arrivals (who will vote for the first time), he explained that they are working with them, even before the summer, thanks to the collaboration of institutions such as the Ministry of Education.

Balseiro Gutiérrez pointed out that the role of the college is very important, since the entire electoral process materializes there.

“At seven in the morning, with those present at the school, the ballot box is opened, it is shown empty and in front of the voters it is sealed. The minutes even include the name, with all its data, of the first voter. From there the voting process begins.

“At six in the afternoon the scrutiny takes place, which is public. People can witness the process, although the ballots are touched only by those who are at the polling station," he explained.

Besides, he reported that five parts would be broadcast on September 25. Another two, of final processing, will be announced the following day.

"We must constantly inform our people of the results that this voting is giving at different times, that is why the conditions are created to have a press room for that purpose," Balseiro Gutiérrez said.

The last part will be given in the national news and, in correspondence with the agreement of the National Assembly calling a referendum, in its fifth section, the Family Code will be considered approved if it receives the majority affirmative vote (yes) of the valid votes issued by voters.

“You all have the confidence that the CEN will fulfill its constitutional mandate and that night we will do all the evaluation and processing of the information so that, at three in the afternoon the next day, we will give preliminary information to the people on the results of this legislative referendum”, the president of the CEN affirmed.

First Family Code to be submitted to popular referendum in the worldProfessor Leonardo Pérez Gallardo, a member of the commission drafting the text, warned that we are in the final stretch of a long process of building the Code, which has not only been built from the right, but has also been born from the people.

“It is the first Family Code in the world (and the only one so far) that will be submitted to a popular referendum. This has drawn the attention of jurists and professors from prestigious universities on the continent and in Europe, that is, that the legal status of families be built not only from Parliament, but that it be built and validated and will not come into force until not be ratified by the people. This is something transcendental and very important”, Pérez Gallardo said.

For the professor, it is a Code that will design and establish the essential guidelines, with a vocation for perennially, of what the legal status is and the way in which families in the country will be protected. How we are going to design Cuban families in the next 40 or 50 years depends on that result of the referendum.

“Voting is taking place in the present tense, but to design the legal status of families not only today, but with a future vocation. I invite Cubans to read the Code again and to do so outside of social networks and away from any stereotype and prejudice.

That they carefully read each one of the precepts and, if they have doubts, that they clarify the doubts that the disputed progressive autonomy of children and adolescents supposes, which implies that I am going to accompany my children in their own children´s life design, but that I am going to leave important footprints, because fathers and mothers will always be with those children.

Let them think when reading this Code in the elderly, because it has designed the essential schemes of personal and patrimonial protection of the elderly. That they think that it is a Code that makes visible for the first time the face of people with disabilities, giving them the possibility of designing their life project.

It is a Code whose center is children and adolescents. Therefore, you have to read it not only with your eyes, but also with your heart. The eyes are sometimes wrong, but the heart never fails, "said the professor.