Cuba. Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular

The National Assembly of People's Power (Spanish: Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular) is the supreme organ of power of the Republic of Cuba. It is the only branch of government in the state, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs are subservient to it. It is currently composed of 470 representatives who are elected from multi-member electoral districts for a term of five years called consejos populares. The current President of the Assembly is Esteban Lazo Hernández. The Assembly only meets twice a year, with the 31-member Council of State exercising legislative power throughout the rest of the year. The most recent elections were held on 26 March 2023. The number of deputies was reduced from 605 to 470 for the 2023 election. Liberal democracy is not practiced in Assembly elections in post-1959 revolutionary Cuba because the ruling Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) government does not permit competitive elections. Cuba is a one-party state, with the PCC being described as the "superior driving force of the society and the state" in the Constitution of Cuba, and all other political parties are illegal. There is only one candidate for each seat in the Assembly, and all candidates are nominated by committees that are firmly controlled by the PCC. Voters can either select individual candidates on their ballot, select every candidate, or leave every question blank, but voters have no option to vote against candidates. During the 2013 elections, around 80% of voters selected every candidate for the Assembly on their ballot, while 4.6% of voters submitted a blank ballot; no candidate for the Assembly has ever lost an election in Cuban history.