National Assembly of People's Power

The National Assembly of People's Power (Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular) is the unicameral parliament of the Republic of Cuba. 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 previously was at 605, but was reduced to 470 for the 2023 election. Assembly elections in the post-1959 revolutionary Cuba are not democratic because the government does not allow free and fair voting. Cuba is a one-party state, with the Communist Party of Cuba 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 Communist Party. 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. The Assembly is a unicameral (one-chamber) parliament and the only body in Cuba that is vested with both constituent and legislative authority (although the government may pass decrees that have the force of law). It holds two regular sessions a year, which are public unless the Assembly itself votes to hold them behind closed doors for reasons of state. It has permanent commissions to look after issues of legislative interest at times when the Assembly is not in session.