-DATE-
19740701
-YEAR-
1974
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
APPEARANCE
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
TOURS MATANZAS POLLING PLACES
-PLACE-
MATANZAS
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SERVICE
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19740702
-TEXT-
FIDEL CASTRO TOURS MATANZAS' POLLING PLACES

Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 1030 GMT 1 Jul 74 F

[Text] Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, first secretary of the PCC and prime
minister of the Revolutionary Government, yesterday toured several polling
places of Matanzas City, where the people were casting their ballots for
delegates of organizations of the people's government.

At the end of his tour, our commander in chief held talks with representatives
of our media at the headquarters of the provincial party, to whom he expressed
his impressions of the tour he had made and referred to other subjects of
national interest.

Our commander in chief pointed out the interest displayed by the residents of
Matanzas Province, who massively went to the polls very early in the
morning--earlier than 0700 when the elections were scheduled to begin--to elect
through direct, secret and voluntary ballot the local leaders of the
organizations of the people's government.

Fidel pointed out the great difference existing between the elections held prior
to the revolutionary triumph, where corruption, political chicanery and
electoral fraud were widespread, and these where the candidates give as
political background their biographies, and merits and are, besides, a part of
the people themselves.

Elsewhere in his talks with newsmen, our prime minister announced that the
processes of establishing the people's governments at the municipalities,
regions and province and of transferring the functions and activities of central
government to these organizations of people's government will occur following
these elections.

He also said that this experience will be assessed by the first congress of our
party in order to subsequently implement this method throughout the rest of the
country. Fidel referred to different topics of economic development in Matanzas
Province and the rest of the country. In response to a question posed on this
year's sugar harvest, Fidel pointed out that it had developed very well, that it
was a good harvest. He said, the yield of the cane was high, as well as the
recovery of resources. The exploitation of the industrial capacity of the mills
was greater, as well as the productivity of the canecutting activities of the
canecutters, which was higher than any other year.

In closing, our commander in chief sent greetings to the residents of Matanzas
Province for the extraordinary revolutionary task that they had developed and
for the insuperable enthusiasm that they had shown.

During his tour of Matanzas Province, our commander in chief visited the Camilo
Cienfuegos military school in the outskirts of Matanzas City. There he was met
by Div Comdr Raul Castro, minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and Vilma
Espin, president of the Federation of Cuban Women. The polling place of the
special subdivision, to which the school was part of, was installed at the
school auditorium, and Fidel visited it.

He shook hands with the members of the polling place and, as he walked out, he
was met by hundreds of students who hurriedly stepped out of the school's
buildings as soon as they learned of Fidel's presence. Fidel walked out of the
school accompanied by a large group of disciplined and excited students.
Subsequently, he returned to Matanzas City where he completed the tour of the
polling places that he had begun earlier.
-END-