Havana, Cuba.- Cuban MPs have discussed this Saturday the draft Electoral Law, considered an express mandate of the Constitution endorsed by the majority of citizens in a popular referendum last February 24 and proclaimed in April.

Council of State Secretary Homero Acosta explained the bill to legislators in a session presided over by President Miguel Diaz-Canel and the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, Raul Castro.

The proposed regulation keeps the people in charge of electing their representatives, and includes modifications in the number of members of the Council of State and the creation of the National Electoral Council.

Acosta pointed out that the regulations preserve the direct nomination of the people’s candidates for delegates to the municipal assemblies of People’s Power, a particularity of the electoral system in Cuba.

Regarding the variation in the number of members of the Council of State, it is detailed that it goes from 31 to 21 persons, including its board of directors.

It also proposes the election of one legislator for every 30,000 inhabitants of a municipality or fraction larger than 15,000, in other words, 127 municipalities will have two representatives.

The electoral bodies created as part of the new Law will permanently exercise their functions at all levels.

The legislation states that the National Assembly of People’s Power (Parliament) is composed of up to 50 per cent of grassroots delegates, who must obtain more than half of the valid votes.

The proportion for the election of MPs is reduced from 605 to 131.