Cubans vote in runoff municipal elections

HAVANA - About 960,000 Cubans went to the polls Sunday for a second round of municipal elections except in the eastern provinces of Santiago of Cuba and Holguin, hit hard by Hurricane Sandy a week ago.

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) postponed the runoff elections, originally scheduled for Oct 28, due to heavy storm rain in the eastern region.

About 3,200 polling stations opened from 7:00 local time (1000 GMT) and were to close at 18:00 (2100 GMT) to elect 1,410 delegates to the Municipal Assemblies of the Popular Power. In those constituencies no candidate obtained more than the half of the votes in the first round.

According to electoral law, if the second round fails to elect all delegates, a third or fourth round will be held.

The NEC said Holguin residents will vote on November 11 while the date for the Santiago of Cuba vote will be announced later.

Eight million Cubans, or 94.21 percent of the country's registered voters, elected 13,127 delegates out of the total 14,537 in the first round on Oct 21.