Two dissidents move past round 1

Men may become the first o∞cials outside the Communist Party.

havana» At least two dissidents made it past a first round of voting and are standing as candidates in municipal elections that will be watched on and off the island Sunday as an unprecedented test of Cuba’s single-party system.

Both men said that they expect to win the second round and become the first officials elected from outside the Communist Party since the first electoral law was established by Fidel Castro’s government in 1976.

Outside observers said the mere fact that dissidents Hildebrando Chaviano and Yuniel Lopez are on the ballot is the first indication that Cuba’s leadership might be softening at least the appearance of its monolithic control of politics.

“This wasn’t an accident, especially since it’s two different people,” said Ted Henken, a Cuba expert at Baruch College in New York. “I think the government is taking the challenge instead of silencing it. It can be portrayed as a further sign of liberalization.”

President Raul Castro began slow-moving but wideranging reforms in the centrally planned economy in 2010. He also promised changes to the electoral system but has provided no details to date.

Chaviano, 65, and Lopez, 26, said they think the government was caught off guard by the support for their candidacies in the first round of candidate selection, which is done at gatherings of neighbors at the district level. They said local officials didn’t have time to organize enough to stop them.

“Some people say that there’s fear in Cuba, and I say that people have lost a lot of their fear,” said Lopez, an unemployed member of the three-decade-old Independent and Democratic Cuba Party. “I already feel like I’ve won.”