The National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) approved on Wednesday the repeal of Law 183, which was enacted only in December 2025 and reduced the term of delegates to municipal assemblies to four years.
With this decision, the regime once again postpones the elections of delegates and moves them to 2027, when they would be held alongside the elections for deputies to the National Assembly, according to a report from the official Canal Caribe.
It is the fourth time that the regime has silenced Cuban voters in less than 10 years, coinciding with the appointment of Miguel Díaz-Canel as the Cuban leader by the will of Raúl Castro's "finger appointment."
Law 183 was designed to correct an accumulated discrepancy since the pandemic: the 2019 Electoral Law provided for a separation of up to a year between municipal and parliamentary elections, but COVID-19 prevented compliance with that schedule in 2020, and in 2022 and 2023 elections were held without that separation.
To address this, in December 2025 the Cuban government presented the law to shorten the term of delegates to four years, expiring in November 2026. That same law was repealed seven months later.
The secretary of the ANPP, José Luis Toledo Santander, justified the reversal with the argument of the crisis: "Today our country is facing a very complex situation, greatly worsened by the difficult economic and social circumstances, which suggests that holding elections at this time is not advisable"
Moreover, the Secretary of the State Council also urged to “focus on the realization of other vital processes for the defense and sustainability of our revolution, in addition to all the resources involved in conducting an electoral process.”
The Constitutional and Legal Affairs Commission of Parliament endorsed the proposal and stated that "it is not advisable, due to the characteristics and conditions that must be guaranteed for the conduct of a process of this nature, to hold the aforementioned elections as originally planned."
It is not the first time that the regime has resorted to this type of maneuver. In 2017, the delegate elections were postponed due to Hurricane Irma. In 2020, the pandemic disrupted the electoral calendar.
In 2023, the Council of State postponed the accountability of the delegates citing the fuel crisis and the energy situation.
Each postponement comes with a different justification, but the pattern is the same: to avoid calling constituency assemblies during times of high social conflict.
The current context makes this conflict particularly evident. The Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 1,311 protests in May 2026 and 107 street protests in June, primarily driven by power outages, lack of water, and widespread shortages.
During July 2026, the energy crisis has caused deficits exceeding 2,000 MW during peak hours, with several units out of service due to fuel shortages, and a string of breakdowns in the thermoelectric plants.
Analysts and independent media indicate that the regime fears that the constituency assemblies —mandatory direct contact spaces between more than 12,400 delegates and their voters— will become platforms for widespread expression of citizen discontent.
The repeal of Law 183 necessitated the calling of an extraordinary session of the ANPP because Law 131 on the organization of Parliament prohibits modifying or repealing a legally binding provision through a simple decree-law.
After the repeal, the mandate of the municipal delegates is once again governed by Article 187 of the Constitution, which sets it at five years, and the next general elections —both for delegates and deputies— are postponed until 2027.
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