More than 8,400,000 Cuban voters will begin on Wednesday to nominate candidates for delegates to the Municipal Assemblies of the People''s Power (local governments).

Then, the elections are slated for April 25 with a run-off on May 2 in districts where none of the candidates obtains more than 50 percent of the valid votes. The new legislative houses of the Island's 169 municipalities will come out from those polls.

"We are working at all levels and with the support of mass organizations to achieve the largest turn-outs of neighbours to the nominating assemblies," said President of the National Electoral Commission Ana Maria Mari.

Different from other countries, Mari recalled, candidates are not elected by the party, but it's the people who propose, nominate and then elect their representatives to the governmental bodies by a direct and secret balloting.

According to the President of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcon, the voluntary and enthusiastic participation of voters in the elections will be a jubilation of true democracy.

This electoral process must be carried out rigorously, methodically and with a critical and creative spirit as President Raul Castro has called for, Alarcon underlined recently.

That is the style, he concluded, that should guide the behavior of all revolutionaries at all times and especially during the activities that are of a decisive importance for the strengthening of the institutionalization in Cuba.