The Big Vote.

With everyone paying so much attention to the US presidential primaries another knife edge election is happening that will keep us all glued to our seats. The Cuba Solidarity Campaign enthusiastically declares:

More than 8.4 million Cubans are expected to participate in the January 20 general elections to elect the delegates to provincial assemblies and the members of the National Assembly (Parliament), said the National Electoral Commission (CEN)President

A dynamic test run last Sunday across the island showed that the infrastructure is in place and ready for the elections to take place in all 38,353 electoral colleges of the country, said Reus.

There are 614 candidates running for Parliament, of which 46.3 percent were elected by local communities, 99 percent have high school diplomas or higher, 63.22 percent are first time nominees, and 56 percent of the candidates were born after 1959.

That's one pretty impressive election yet it has received scant coverage over here despite the fact that it appears to refute the general idea of Cuba as some sort of dictatorship. Is there anything that the Cuba Solidarity Campaign has failed to mention I wonder? The BBC reports:

Polls have closed in Cuba where people have been voting to choose members of a new National Assembly or parliament.

Only one person is standing per seat, including ailing leader Fidel Castro, even though he has not been seen in public for almost a year-and-a-half.

I guess the CSC had to omit that trivial detail for reasons of space.