On Sunday, Cuba closed the polling stations for the referendum on the Family Code, an advanced piece of legislation that includes same-sex marriage and surrogacy, which was the subject of an intense campaign in favor of the Yes by the government. “This is a very humane, totally inclusive code,” former Marxism professor Elio Gómez, 78, told AFP in a polling place in Old Havana, saying that he would never have voted in favor before.
The polls were scheduled to close at 6:00 p.m. local time (10:00 p.m. GMT), but the hours were extended until 7:00 p.m. (11:00 p.m. GMT) in the capital, in six provinces and in two others, partially due to the rains caused by tropical storm Ian.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who went to vote with his wife, Lis Cuesta, in a polling place in the capital, referred to the code as “a fair, necessary, updated, modern regulation that gives rights and guarantees to all people, to all the diversities of families, of people, of creed”.
But he also warned about the vote against the text.
“We have to get used to the fact that in such complex issues, where there is a diversity of criteria”, when a difficult economic situation prevails, “there can also be (…) a vote of punishment”.
