Cuba said on Monday that voters had elected all 470 candidates for the National Assembly on the ballot over the weekend, calling the results a "home run," while opposition groups critiqued the elections as a farce.
Election officials said Monday that the initial turnout was 75.9 percent, topping participation in municipal elections in November and a referendum on the Cuban family code, which legalized gay marriage, in September. President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who led a government campaign to encourage turnout on Sunday, called the results a "win" for Cuba.
Opposition groups, primarily outside of Cuba, had encouraged voters to stay home in protest, calling the election a "farce" in a one-party system with no formal opposition or international oversight. The US embassy in Havana called the elections "antidemocratic" on social media. The 470 candidates on Sunday's paper ballot were vying for 470 open seats in the legislature. There were no opposition candidates.
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