MSc. Ariagna Gonzalez Landeiro, coordinator of the Cuban Electoral Process at UCI. Photo: Tania García Torres
UCI also votes for Cuba
MSc. Ariagna Gonzalez Landeiro, coordinator of the Cuban Electoral Process at UCI. Photo: Tania García Torres
In the midst of arrangements to accomplish one of the most important stages of the electoral process in Cuba: the nomination assemblies, MSc. Ariagna González Landeiro, coordinator of this process at the University of Informatics Sciences (UCI), explains for the Mella newspaper readers every detail about it.
Our institution has five special constituencies, where from 26 June to 30 June (first stage), the electoral commissions were created, composed of a president, a secretary and three members, who were trained (second stage) at UCI. During the training sessions, particular emphasis was placed on the need to achieve compliance with their duties and to have a complete mastery of the Cuban Electoral Law
Regarding the members of the aforementioned bodies, Gonzalez Landeiro saw fit to point out that they are responsible, capable and revolutionary comrades who efficiently comply with the norms that govern the procedure.
"Those who lead the process, students and workers from the institution are great people who are also well prepared. It is their responsibility to publicize the issues associated with the constituencies, to conduct assemblies, to announce and prepare the polling places; in brief, they are responsible for the quality to be achieved at each stage ".
In terms of stages, UCI coordinator, Ariagna González, told us that the constituency Directorates are now in the process of “refining” the electoral rolls by areas; there are more than three thousand voters, all those living on campus (students, workers and outsourced personnel).
"You cannot give an exact number of voters yet, it all depends on the “filtering” as, for example, we also have to take into account the students from the Introductory Faculty of Computer Science (FICI) who are being included”
She explained that the next stage is one of the most important phases of all the process: the nomination assemblies, which will be held in our institution from 18-22nd September.
Regarding the composition of the five special constituencies at UCI, Ariagna González stated that:
"UCI comprises constituencies 84, 85, 86, 87 and 88 in the Municipality of La Lisa and there will be held 10 nomination assemblies (two for each constituency due to the large number of people). They are distributed as follows:
"Constituency 84 includes students and workers from FICI; Constituency 85, includes students and workers from School 2, plus the Vicerectorships, and the University central directorates; Constituency 86, includes electors from Schools 1 and 3; Constituency 87 those from School 4 and the School of Sciences and Computational Technologies (Citec); and finally Constituency 88 includes outsourced personnel and some of the staff from the Xetid Company, also located within the university campus, who live far from their province of residence.
WHY VOTING AT UCI?
Some people live on campus far from their provinces, but like all the Cuban citizens, they have the right to vote and elect the delegates to the People's Power municipal assemblies, who could at some point be appointed as members of the provincial assemblies or become deputies to the National Assembly.
"This is the way we have to be represented by the people closer to us, those we consider have the conditions to be elected," says our interviewee who adds that: "It is all about having a delegate within the University administrative structure, too; thus, having another way to follow-up the self- management of each area where the voters reside, through the delegate’s performance and accountability reporting sessions.
"This is the opportunity we have to be inserted in the entire Cuban electoral process by choosing a delegate with a positive attitude and merits, therefore having another means to channel the planteamientos and to be informed about important issues within the community," she added.
MSc. Ariagna Gonzalez Landeiro, coordinator of the Cuban Electoral Process at UCI, concluded with two main calls:
"We call on all UCI electors to identify those candidates who can best represent us, and to participate reliably in the nomination assemblies, from 18 to 22 of the current month.
"We also call on all the voters to arrive at the polling places early in the morning next October 22nd , when the partial elections will be held. This is the way to demonstrate that the University of Informatics Sciences also votes for Cuba. "
