IRI Survey Shows Majority of Cubans Want to Vote for Castro’s Replacement
Vilnius, Lithuania – A survey (Spanish Version) conducted in Cuba for IRI indicates that nearly three-quarters of Cubans surveyed (73.9%) would like to vote to decide who succeeds Fidel Castro as President. The survey of 584 Cubans was conducted from September 5-October 4, 2007.
Other critical findings in the survey are:
- Just a quarter of Cubans (25.2 percent) believe things are going very well or well in the country while nearly 40 percent think things are going badly or very badly. The remaining third (33.7 percent) say the country’s situation is neither good nor bad.
- Nearly 43 percent of Cubans surveyed say low-salaries and the high cost of living are the country’s biggest problem; another 18.2 percent cited lack of freedoms or the political system while 11.6 percent cited scarcity of food and nearly five percent (4.8 percent) cited the embargo as the biggest problems facing the country.
- A majority of Cubans (75.6 percent) think that political democratic changes in their country would improve their daily lives. Only 14.2 percent believe that democratic changes would make their lives worse.
- An overwhelming 83 percent of Cubans believe that transformations toward a market-based economy would improve their lives, while only 9.6 percent believe that free-market changes would make their lives worse.
- When asked specifically how changes to a market economy would improve their lives, 13 percent said purchasing power would increase and a similar number cited that salaries would improve (12.8 percent).
-
When asked if they would prefer the current political system to one where people could choose from candidates of different parties, 76.3 percent said they would like to choose compared to 23.7 percent who wanted to keep the current system.
The study also revealed a very strong correlation between age and education and the degree to which Cubans support democratic and economic changes. The younger or more educated the interviewee, the more he or she supported political and economic changes, multi-party elections and the right to vote to decide who should succeed Fidel Castro.
Face-to-face interviews were completed between September 5-October 4, 2007. The surveyors randomly interviewed, according to province, age and gender, a total of 584 Cuban adults. The survey has a margin of error of +/- four percent, and a 95 percent level of confidence. The survey was conducted in 14 out of the 15 Cuban provinces.
Top