IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 8 ENGLISH | Page 154

The social legitimacy of all state and nonstate actors allows to return to the debate on
universal values and even to perform the
basic work on social legitimacy that is needed to push forward constitutional reforms
from outside the framework of the constitution, as the government does. Why the
unconstitutional reforms made by the government are legitimate, while those proposed
by the civil society proposed are not? This
question is central to the strategy and tactics
of # Otro18: our political and social movement runs through the institutional gaps
given by the constitution and the other laws
in order to reinforce the scenarios for more
in-depth constitutional reforms, social practices and policies, but always from the
perspective of the rule of law. That’s why
we work with two agendas, right now as a
draft bills to reform the electoral system: a
Minimal Agenda and a Maximal Agenda.
Minimal Agenda and Zero Violence
The Minimal Agenda proposes a series of
minimalist reforms to the electoral system,
using also the few spaces for association
allowed by the current laws. Our purpose is
to open and legitimize the political game
before the society. An enriched minimal
agenda should become the Minimal Project
# Otro18 aimed to reform the electoral
system. Two processes are running in parallel to the deliberation by the citizens. The
deliberative survey —its content is already
under development— and the collection of
signatures as part of a step-by-step process
of public consultation through a clear ballot
box. In such a way we will reinforce the
sense of identity of the Cuban people with #
Otro18, and also seek the legitimate and
legalized support for both the universal

guarantees that any plural and competitive
electoral system needs and the specific
proposals of the Minimal Project. The main
purpose is that the new electoral law should
guarantee three basic demands: the plurality
of the Cuban political society, the competitiveness of the political system, and the
direct election of the President. # Otro18 is
committed to train and prepare independent
candidates. We already have 130 candidates
# Otro18 for the upcoming municipal and
provincial elections in 2017 and 2108. It’s
strategically important to work on the three
programmatic points of the independent
candidates: a local agenda, a structural
agenda (the Minimal Project # Otro18) and a
minimal political agenda to be presented by
the Table of Unity for Democratic Action
(MUAD). Moreover, # Otro18 understands
that the support needed to make the difference cannot be achieved without mobilization of the citizens. This strategy must be
completed in two ways: by placing the
Minimal Agenda as part of the MUAD’s
Minimal Program and by mobilizing around
# Otro18 all the projects and organizations
working in areas and issues related to the
culturally and historically marginalized
social sectors. In the Cuban context it’s
essential and necessary to deploy an additional strategy for campaigning against the
violence. In time and space of opening to
criticism and to political plurality, it’s required to deal with the specific issues of
violence in order to meet the state and parastate challenges coming from a vision,
overall conception and praxis proper to the
closed hegemonies.

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