Cuba calls elections critical to Castro future

updated 4:43 p.m. ET Nov. 20, 2007

HAVANA - Cuba announced Tuesday it has set Jan. 20 for national elections that are part of the process of determining whether ailing leader Fidel Castro continues as president.

The ruling signed by interim leader Raul Castro, read on state television, set the date for elections to provincial and national assemblies, voting that is held every five years.

There was no explicit mention of Fidel Castro, but the 81-year-old leader of the Cuban Revolution must be re-elected to the national parliament before he could repeat as president of the Council of State to remain in full power.

Raul, 76, is the council's first vice president.

The date for the national elections had not been previously announced, but earlier indications had been that they would not be held until March or April. There was no word on why the balloting will be held earlier than originally anticipated.

The elder Castro stepped aside on July 31, 2006, after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery, provisionally ceding his functions to Raul and a team of other top leaders. He has not been seen in public since, appearing only in official photographs and videos and regularly writing essays with mostly international themes.

Council elected every five years
The parliament, known in Cuba as the National Assembly, elects a new council every five years, several weeks after deputies are elected. It was not announced when the new National Assembly would meet for the first time to renew the top council members.

Cuba's constitution calls for the council's first vice president, currently Raul, to fill the presidential slot when vacated. Fidel, Cuba's unchallenged leader since 1959, held the council presidency since its 1976 creation.

Cuba recently held the first round of its election process, with more than 8.1 million voters — 95 percent of those registered — casting ballots in late October to elect more than 12,000 delegates to 169 municipal assemblies across the island.

Those assemblies are now choosing candidates for provincial and national assembly seats.

Anyone 16 or older can vote in Cuba and casting a ballot is not mandatory. Membership in the Communist Party — the only legal political party on the island — also is not required.

Opposition boycotts polls
Tiny dissident groups — which are tolerated but dismissed by Cuba's government as mercenaries of the United States — boycotted the municipal elections.

Detractors of Cuba's electoral process complain that the country's president is not directly elected by citizens and say voters feel heavy pressure to support pro-government candidates.

Cuban officials say successful candidates have earned the respect of their neighbors rather than outspending their opponents like in the United States.

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