[NYTr] Election in Cuba: Fidel Stresses Vote by Slate Expresses Unity

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles

Fidel Castro: Vote by Slate Expresses Unity

Havana, Jan 8 (acn) Cuban President Fidel Castro stressed the 
importance Tuesday of voting for the slate of candidates at the 
upcoming January 20th general elections.

In a message sent to the prime-time TV show 'The Round Table', Fidel 
Castro noted that all Cuban citizens have the right to vote for the 
candidates of their preference, but he stressed that voting for the 
entire list of candidates expresses the Cuban people's unity of action.

On Sunday, January 20, the Cuban people will cast their ballots for 
members of the provincial assemblies and the national parliament.

Fifty percent of the candidatures were first nominated as 
representatives in their voting districts and later elected to the city 
councils. Another part of the candidates was chosen by civic and labor 
organizations based on their social, labor and educational backgrounds.

Fidel Castro underscored in his message the 49th anniversary of the 
victorious arrival of the rebel army in Havana, remembered in Cuba on 
Tuesday. He recalled the rally held back in 1959, at the Columbia 
Military Camp and the presence there of the late Commander Camilo 
Cienfuegos as well as other details about the important date in Cuban 
history.

The Cuban leader also referred to the main topic analyzed during the TV 
Round Table discussion, the "escape" of US President George Bush to the 
Middle East, where he will pay propaganda-aimed visits. He said it was 
a miracle that Bush's naval escort did not fire on Iranian boats that 
were on their own coasts.

Fidel Castro recalled that a prominent publishing house launched the 
first English edition of the book 'Biography in two Voices' or 'One 
Hundred Hours with Fidel'. He also drew attention to his own 
reflections published earlier Tuesday by the Cuban media in which he 
stresses the exemplary personality of Chilean Elena Pedraza, a 
prominent Physical Rehabilitation specialist who collaborated with Cuba 
for a long time and whom he dubbed 'an exemplary communist.'

Cubanews/lach/cr   rsl   07   22:40