Havana, Nov 26 (RHC/Prensa Latina) – After casting his vote today in Cuban municipal elections, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said he wished for U.S. citizens to have “an election day like we are having in Cuba, to witness it first hand, so they could make up their own opinion of our democratic system.”

Rodriguez recalled that Washington has intensified the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States for over half a century and maintains the prohibition of US citizens to travel to Cuba.

This electoral process in Cuba is drawing the attention of many around the world, said Rodriguez, “more so than it usually does, and we are happy to be exercising our right to vote at such a turbulent and growingly complex moment for the world, when truly expressing one's free will is increasingly difficult,” he stressed.

Over 24 thousand polling stations opened Sunday in Cuba for 8 million voters to elect delegates to municipal assemblies, as part of a national electoral process which will conclude with the election of a new president on February 24 next year.

In this first stage of the 2017-2018 general elections, 12,515 delegates will be elected from a similar number of constituencies to become members of the 168 municipal assemblies across the island.

A run-off vote is slated for December 3 in constituencies where none of the candidates got 50 percent of valid ballots.

A second vote to elect for a five year mandate delegates to provincial assemblies and the National Parliament will be announced later in the year.

This electoral process in Cuba will lead to the election by the National Parliament on February 24 of the country's new president.