Cuban Elections
One-party electionsAS OF 2026-09-08 · 37 CONTESTS · legislative, 26 March 2023 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Every general election the Cuban republic held, 1901 to 1958, its House of Representatives elected alongside a presidency that saw real fraud accusations, one openly unopposed re-election and a revolution that stopped a winner from ever taking office, then every National Assembly of People's Power election since, 1976 to 2023, in which the Communist Party of Cuba's single list has always won exactly as many seats as there are to fill.
Source: Wikipedia election articles · as of 2026-09-08
National Assembly seats
470
one list, one result, since 1993
Elections since 1901
37
2023 turnout
75.84%
down nearly 10 points on 2018, the sharpest drop on record
Presidential elections
Every presidential election the Cuban republic held, 1901 to 1958, newest first. The republic elected no president after 1958; the National Assembly, not a popular vote, has chosen Cuba's head of government since.
Batista's return · 1954-1958
Fulgencio Batista seized power in a 1952 coup that pre-empted that year's scheduled election, then won the 1954 vote after the main opposition candidate withdrew before polling day. His chosen successor won the 1958 election against a public rebel boycott call and never took office: the Cuban Revolution triumphed nine weeks after the vote.
The competitive years · 1936-1948
Cuba's most consistently competitive presidential elections, run under the new 1940 constitution, with genuine multi-candidate fields each time and no fraud recorded in the source. 1948's four-way race was the widest field the republic's presidency ever saw.
A fraudulent decade, then Machado · 1912-1928
Real multi-candidate contests decided the presidency through the 1920s, but 1920's result was accepted only after the US ambassador substantiated Liberal fraud accusations against it, and 1924's, which made Gerardo Machado president, was itself deemed fraudulent before he abolished the one-term pledge he had campaigned on. His 1928 re-election had no other candidate on the ballot at all, and the opposition was repressed.
Palma and the first republic · 1901-1908
Tomás Estrada Palma won Cuba's first presidential election unopposed after his only rival withdrew citing irregularities, and won a second term in 1905 in a vote a US peace commission later found so tainted by fraud that it suspended the Congress the election had also produced.
Legislative elections
Every general-election House of Representatives result the Cuban republic recorded, 1901 to 1958, then every National Assembly of People's Power election since, 1976 to 2023, newest first. No election was held between 1959 and 1976, and the National Assembly rows since 1993 carry the same caveat every time: one list, no contest.
The National Assembly of People's Power · 1976-2023
Cuba's post-revolutionary legislature was chosen indirectly through municipal assemblies for its first three elections, 1976 to 1986, before a 1992 electoral law moved to direct election in 1993. Every election since has offered one list, the Communist Party of Cuba and its affiliated mass organisations, and the declared result has always equalled the number of seats: the National Assembly's own size.
The 1940 constitution's decade · 1936-1958
Women voted for the first time in 1936 and seven were elected to the House that year, and the 1940 constitution that followed brought Cuba's most genuinely competitive stretch of multi-party elections, ending with a four-party presidential field in 1948. Batista's 1952 coup pre-empted the next scheduled vote; 1954's contest went ahead with the main opposition candidate withdrawing before polling day, and 1958's, held against a public rebel boycott call, elected a House and a president who never took office once the revolution triumphed that January.
Fraud, coalitions and a one-party sham · 1912-1928
Multi-party coalitions filled the House through the 1920s, but the period's two biggest results carry a shadow: the Liberal Party's 1920 accusation of fraud against the ruling Conservatives was substantiated by the US ambassador and forced new elections in four provinces, and the 1924 vote that made Gerardo Machado's coalition the largest in the House was itself deemed fraudulent before he turned the presidency into a dictatorship. No House was elected in 1928 at all; that year's article covers only Machado's unopposed re-election.
The young republic · 1901-1908
Cuba's first House of Representatives was elected under American oversight after the 1898 war, and the 1905 election that followed handed the Moderate Party 31 of the House's 32 seats amid an electoral roll a US commission called inflated by 150,000 names. A peace commission sent by Theodore Roosevelt found the 1905 vote so tainted by fraud that it suspended Congress outright the following year.
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout
Turnout in the competitive republic ran as high as 78.70% in 1948; the National Assembly era has recorded turnout above 85% at every election through 2013 before falling to 75.84% in 2023, the lowest the National Assembly has recorded.
The largest party or list's share
The republic's largest share on record is the Moderate Party's fraud-tainted 31 of 32 House seats in 1905; every National Assembly election since 1993 has returned the Communist Party of Cuba's list on 100% of the seats it contested.
Records & superlatives
Highest presidential turnout
63.5%
1901, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest presidential turnout
63.5%
1901
Largest presidential win
70.4%
Andrés Rivero Agüero, 1958
Narrowest presidential win
60.7%
José Miguel Gómez, 1908
Highest turnout
63.5%
1901, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest turnout
63.5%
1901
Most seats won
70
Democratic National Association, 1936
Widest presidential field
4 candidates
Carlos Prío Socarrás's win over Ricardo Núñez Portuondo, Eduardo Chibás and Juan Marinello, the republic's most contested presidential race.
Largest single-party sweep
31 of 32 House seats
The Moderate Party's result in an election a US peace commission later found so tainted by fraud that it suspended the Congress it produced.
Longest gap between elections
14 years
No election was held in Cuba between the revolution and the first National Assembly of People's Power.
Highest National Assembly turnout
97.64%
Recorded a year after Fidel Castro told voters the Assembly's list was, in his words, unanimous by design.
How Cuban elections work
A republic that never quite escaped fraud
Cuba's House of Representatives and presidency were elected together in every general election from 1901 to 1958 but one, and the source records real fraud accusations, substantiated by a US ambassador in 1920 and by a peace commission in 1905, at several of them.
A revolution mid-count
The 1958 election proceeded despite a public rebel boycott call and elected a House and a president neither of whom ever took office: the Cuban Revolution triumphed on 1 January 1959, nine weeks after the vote.
Fourteen years with no election at all
The republic's Congress was not replaced by anything elected until 1976, when voters chose municipal assembly members who in turn chose the first National Assembly of People's Power.
One list, every seat, since 1993
Direct election of the National Assembly began in 1993, and the Communist Party of Cuba's single approved list has taken every seat at every election since, its declared result always exactly equal to the Assembly's own size.