National Discussions Of Future Constitutional Reform Conclude In Cuba

National Discussions of Future Constitutional Reform Conclude in Cuba

The Cuban constitutional reform moved into a new phase on Thursday, November 15, after over 7 million Cuban citizens participated in the national discussion of the future text of the country's main law and submitted their proposals in this regard.

HAVANA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2018) The Cuban constitutional reform moved into a new phase on Thursday, November 15, after over 7 million Cuban citizens participated in the national discussion of the future text of the country's main law and submitted their proposals in this regard.

The existing Cuban constitution has been in force since 1976 and already undergone certain changes, with amendments having been adopted in 1978, 1992 and 2002.

The process of constitutional reform in the country has been taking place against the backdrop of economic system's renewal and the fundamental changes in the life of the Cuban society.

In early June, the Cuban parliament, the National Assembly of People's Power, elected a special parliamentary commission on the constitutional reform, comprising 33 members and headed by Raul Castro, the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party.

The members of the parliamentary commission represented all sectors of the Cuban civic society and included delegates of the Federation of Cuban Women, the Revolution Defense Committees, and the National Association of Small Farmers.

The representatives of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, the National Organization of Collective Law Offices, the University Students Federation, the country's academy of Sciences as well as the employees of Cuba's various ministries were also among the commission's members.

Unlike other countries, Cuba has not convened a constituent assembly to amend the country's constitution and entrusted the parliamentary commission with drafting the new main law since, under the Cuban law, the Cuban National Assembly of People's Power is the only body in the country with constitutional and law-making authorities.

The parliamentary commission's proposals, adopted in July, provided for changing the 1976 constitution fundamentally and keeping only 11 articles of the document unchanged. The draft constitution is expected to include 224 articles compared to 137 articles of the existing main law.

On July 22, the Cuban parliament adopted the draft text of the future constitution, edited by the parliamentary commission, and presented it for national discussion, which took the form of the meetings of Cuban citizens at work, educational institutions and in military units and residential areas.

The debate has also been joined by the Cubans leaving abroad, which accounts for approximately 1.4 million people in 120 countries. They have been allowed to make their suggestions on a special website of the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

According to Cuba's national team processing the opinions of the country's citizens, nearly a million and a half of people made specific proposals on the matter since the launch of discussions on August 13.

About 660,000 proposals, regarding amending, adding or abolishing the articles of the Cuban constitution, have been made.

The meetings devoted to the discussion of the country's future main law have seen the expression of opinions both supporting and contradicting the proposals enshrined in the draft document, but all of them constituted the exercise of direct democracy.

Regardless of the outcome of the vote on the constitutional reform, the discussion of the constitutional project has sparked nationwide debates and made many Cubans feel that they are to decide on what changes should take place in the country. In the society, where bills and decisions concerning the changes of the social organization have been endorsed for decades by authorities without even consulting the population, it might be considered the most important result.

Many of the polled Cubans have agreed that the authorities' aspiration to listen to the country's people was the most important thing about the national debate.

However, the anti-democratic practices that dominated the life in Cuba for decades made many Cubans think that their opinions might not be reflected in the final version of the document. A considerable part of the Cuban population agree that it would be difficult for the country's authorities to integrate all the expressed opinions in the future constitution.

The discussion process has not always been calm, with several proposals included in the draft text by the parliamentary commission having faced divergence of views.

The exclusion of the Cubans both residents and non-residents from the process of foreign investment has been met with public criticism. According to some Cuban citizens, the draft proposal will exclude a considerable part of the country's population, who legally earned their assets, from the important process, needed for the development of the country's economy.

"There should be no restrictions on the matter for the people, who have the possibilities and desire to develop the country's economy, it is counterrevolutionary," a Cuban opposing the draft article told Sputnik.

The issue has also raised public concerns regarding the possible conflicts in the society that potentially might emerge in the socialist system due to the recognition of private property and capital accumulation.

The article on marriage turned out to be another sensitive subject since its text did not include any restrictions regarding the sex of future spouses, which makes same-sex marriages possible.

"The Cuban society has always lived under the pressure of taboo, and it will not be easy to get rid of it, but it is necessary to move forward and fight against prejudice to ensure freedom for all the citizens without exception," student Orestes Gonzalez told Sputnik.

Cuba's national processing team is now set to examine all the proposals received in course of national discussions and will deliver the proposed amendments to the document to the committee on the draft constitution.

The final proposals will be submitted to the National Assembly of People's Power for discussion and are expected to be considered at a parliamentary session in December. The Cuban parliament will decide on the final text of the constitution, which will be put to a popular vote in February 2019.