Cuba’s Parliament Discusses Extensively New Draft Constitution

After a two-day study and analysis of the text, the MPs will hear a comprehensive presentation by the Secretary of the Council of State, Homero Acosta, on the proposed constitution, which will be submitted in plenary to the Assembly for approval.

From August 13 to November 15, Cuba hosted a consultation on the initial version of the document, a process in which more than 133,000 meetings were attended by almost nine million citizens, who issued 783,000 proposals.

The opinions expressed in neighborhoods and centers of work and study, as well as by Cubans living abroad, became, after processing, around 9,600 sample proposals, half of them incorporated in one form or another into the project.

If the new Constitution is approved in the second ordinary term, which will also meet on the weekend, a popular referendum will be called, in which Cubans will decide by direct and secret vote whether or not to put into effect a text that represents a total reform of the Constitution in force since 1976.

The document resulting from the consultation has 229 articles (five more than the previous one), distributed in 11 titles, an initiative that suffered 760 changes with respect to the one approved by the National Assembly last July.

The proposed Constitution ratifies Cuba’s socialist character and the leading role of the Communist Party in its society, includes modifications in the structure of the State, broadens individual rights and recognizes various forms of ownership, including the socialist of all the people, the cooperative, the mixed and the private.