Cuba could have a new government soon that would weaken the office of president if the new draft of the island's constitution recently approved by the National Assembly is ratified in a referendum in February.
According to the final version of the draft, published over the weekend by official media, the National Assembly must approve a new electoral law within six months after the new constitution is enacted. Then, within three months, the National Assembly must choose a president, vice president and Council of State from among its deputies.
And a new office of prime minister would be established, requiring the president to share power.
Exactly when the new government could be formed is uncertain. It depends on the approval of the constitution in the referendum and its publication in the Official Gazette.
The current government structure took effect in April 2018, when Raul Castro ceded the presidency to Miguel Diaz-Canel, whom Castro had been grooming for years. Diaz-Canel could be named president again by the National Assembly, but his political strength would be somewhat diminished because he would have to share power with a prime minister even though he would have a hand in the selection.
Under the current government structure, the president also heads the Council of State, which exercises legislative powers, and the Council of Ministers, the highest-ranking executive and administrative body.
Under the approved draft constitution, the new president could nominate someone for the office of the prime minister, and the National Assembly will vote to ratify the nominee. The prime minister will be the head of government but the president will remain head of state and the country's military.
The ruling Communist Party would remain intact with no opposition since the draft constitution would establish the party as "superior political power of society and of the State." Castro, 87, also would remain as first secretary of the party.
Although the document establishes an age limit of 60 for a president in a first term _ as proposed by Castro �� no such limit was imposed on the prime minister. The president and vice president, however, could serve only two terms in office.
Many of the changes in the new constitution were already known and its main elements _ the irrevocable character of socialism, the main role of the Communist Party and a socialist planned economy _ remained unchanged in the final draft.
Although the National Assembly announced that it made 760 changes to the final version to include suggestions made by citizens in assemblies held throughout the country, the changes seem minor. There are a few exceptions, including the elimination of the language referring to marriage as "the union between two individuals," a definition opposed by churches in the island.
The final version includes some legal guarantees, such as the right to file a petition for habeas corpus, and a declaration of respect for the "freedoms of thought, conscience and expression" that do not appear in the current constitution, passed in 1976. But the scope of many such rights, including freedom of association and freedom of the press, will be limited by current laws _ or those to be written _ or by what the government interprets as lawful.
The draft includes two new articles to allow citizens to seek compensation for damages caused by state officials or request rectification or nondisclosure of their public data, but this will also be regulated by laws yet to be written.
Although the government invited Cuban exiles to make suggestions for the draft constitution, the final version would not expand the role of private property or the political rights of citizens who live outside Cuba. The final document includes a clarification _ absent in the first version _ to emphasize that private property has only "a complementary role in the (planned socialist) economy."
