Today, Cuba elects its new president. It attracts considerable attention in the media that the "Castro era" ends, as it is formulated differently.
Cuba has a unique and different democracy than we know from the western classical bourgeois democracy. Of course, it has landed because Cuba is a socialist country! That's why it's annoying - it's manipulative that almost everybody measures Cuba with a bourgeois scale, and often Cuba's democracy is judging because it's not organized like in Denmark or other western countries.
There is reason to congratulate the future president on the election and a strong popular mandate.
It can be said simply: It is not Cubans' goal that their democracy is organized as in capitalist countries where money has a huge influence on elections. It is not the goal of the Cubans that political parties should be the main players in the electoral system. As Cubans often answer when foreigners ask if they will not have more parties soon: "We have tried. From 1900 to 1959 we had a lot of political parties but no democracy."
The Cuban electoral system is quite easy to understand, and it is striking that Danish media interpreters and commentators find it difficult to understand that political parties do not play a part in it. Once you understand it, you also understand that Cuba's Communist Party does not play any part in the elections. It does not raise candidates. It does not lead election campaign.
Selection of candidates for the elections takes place at open civilian meetings in district circles, which may be residential neighborhoods or villages. And in elections to the National Assembly, Cuba also has large organizations entitled to nominate candidates. This applies to the trade union movement, the peasantry movement, the students, etc.
It is different from what we normally know, but both transparent, democratic and not least a electoral system that the Cubans actively back up. Up to 70 percent of the voters participated prior to the last election in the election of candidates, and about 80 percent voted on the election day.
There is reason to show respect for Cuba's electoral system - Poder Popular - the people power, as it is rightly called. And there is reason to congratulate the future president on the election and a strong popular mandate.