New Cuban Family Code to Referendum in September

Havana, July 22 (ACN) The Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power (Parliament) approved to submit the new Code of the Families to the people’s referendum on Sunday, September 25 on the island and a week earlier for Cubans abroad.

The referendum ballot will bring a single question: Do you agree with the Family Code? And the free, equal and secret vote by the citizens, who will respond YES or NO will determine if the law gets in force or not.

If the Code receives an over 50-percent majority of ballots with a YES, it will be finally adopted, said Homero Acosta secretary of the Cuban Parliament. The proceeding is in tune with the Cuban constitution, said Jose Luis Toledo, president of the Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Commission.
The National Electoral Council will be in charge of organizing, leading and supervising the referendum in tune with the Electoral Law and its constitutional and legal role.

Acosta said that this is historic action since for the first time ever, Cuba has approved the effective exercise of a legislative referendum; he added that with this step the country joins the small number of nations which have developed this kind of direct democracy institution.

Acosta called to give a YES to the draft bill because it reflects the people’s drams of inclusion, social justice and full equality; we are convinced that the majority of the Cuban people will take on this revolutionary, inclusive and democratic Code, he noted.