is enshrined in Article 5 of the Cuban Constitution. In 1965, the 26th of July Movement, Popular Socialist Party, and 13th of March Revolutionary Directorate were all merged into a single Communist Party under Fidel Castro. All other political parties were dissolved and banned. For decades, no opposition candidates were permitted to stand for office. Campaigning is not permitted in elections in Cuba; rather, photographs and biographies of candidates are publicly posted. In 2015, two dissident candidates (one independent, and one member of the outlawed Independent and Democratic Cuba Party founded by Huber Matos) stood for election to a Havana local council, the first openly declared opposition candidates to seek office since 1959. However, both were defeated. Comments Political scientists Political scientists do not consider elections in Cuba to be democratic. The electoral process is firmly controlled by authoritarian Cuban regime. William M. LeoGrande, in a paper written for the Cuba Transition Project at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, wrote of the 1992 election law: "unprecedented openness in debate, not just among party members, but also among the entire populace, so as to foster greater participation and build 'the necessary consensus' for the government's policy response...Eventually, some three million people participated in the pre-Congress discussions", but "When the new electoral law was finalized… it dashed any hopes for a significant opening to alternative voices. The ban on campaigning was retained, and the nomination of provincial and national assembly candidates was entrusted to Candidacy Commissions. Through an elaborate process of consultation… the Candidacy Commissions… produced slates of nominees with just one candidate per seat. Voters only had the choice of voting yes or no. Thus, the election process at the provincial and national levels avoided the possibility of even implicit policy differences among candidates.” Cuba Fidel Castro made many statements affirming that Cuba is a democracy or has democratic features. In 1960, Castro made a speech to the General Assembly referring to Cuba in relation to other Latin American nations, “We are speaking of democracy. If Government is of people and democratic, people can be consulted, as we are doing here. What is more an example of pure democracy than meetings such as this one. If they cannot call such meetings they are not democracies.” Castro continued “Those who want to see people’s democracy let them come here and see this. We can speak