Elections in Cuba are held at municipal, provincial, and national levels. 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 being illegal. Elections in Cuba are not considered democratic because the government does not allow free and fair voting. There are currently 605 seats in the National Assembly of People's Power, Cuba's unicameral legislature, which is scheduled to decrease to 474 after the 2023 elections. There is only one candidate for each seat in the Assembly, with all being nominated by committees that are firmly controlled by the Communist Party. Most legislative districts elect multiple representatives to the Assembly. Voters can select individual candidates on their ballot, select every candidate, or leave every question blank, with 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% submit a blank ballot; no candidate for the Assembly has lost an election in Cuban history. The National Assembly only is in session twice per year, with the Council of State exercising the legislative authority throughout the rest of the year. The 21 members of the Council of State are elected by the Assembly, and a 2021 study determined that most members of the Council may have been defeated if they were elected by the people instead. Fidel Castro was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) from 1961 until 2011, and was in power first as Prime Minister and then as President, from 1959 until 2008. Castro's brother Raúl Castro was designated Fidel's successor at the 5th Communist Party congress in October 1997. Fidel Castro officially retired on 19 April 2011, leaving his brother as the sole candidate for First Secretary. Procedure According to the constitution, Cuba is a socialist republic where all members or representative bodies of state power are elected and subject to recall and the masses control the activity of the state agencies, the deputies, delegates and officials. Elections in Cuba have two phases: election of delegates to the Municipal Assembly, and election of deputies to the National Assembly. Candidates for municipal assemblies are nominated on an individual basis at local levels by the local population at nomination assemblies. Candidates for the National Assembly are nominated by