by Our Foreign Desk

DISSIDENT Cuban local election candidates Hildebrando Chaviano and Yuniel Lopez conceded defeat on Sunday in two Havana wards for which they had been nominated by neighbourhood meetings.

They had hoped to win two of the 12,589 seats at stake in 168 municipal councils, but acknowledged that they had no chance after preliminary results showed Mr Chaviano in last place of four candidates and one of Mr Lopez’s pro-government opponents with twice his vote.

Mr Chaviano is a former lawyer turned self-styled independent journalist while Mr Lopez is a member of a dissident political party.

“The vote was clean. The people don’t want change,” said Mr Chaviano.

The count in Mr Chaviano’s contest in Havana’s well-off Vedado neighbourhood was watched by an unusually large number of residents.

After the count was read out, the crowd shouted pro-revolutionary slogans, including: “Love live Fidel!”

Retired labourer Narciso Viera told a US reporter that he had voted against Mr Chaviano because “he’s a counter-revolutionary in the pay of your government for many years.”

Mr Lopez complained that he had not been able to watch the full count in one polling place and that government supporters had urged people to vote against him.

Cuba’s municipal elections provide for direct voting for delegates to municipal assemblies that deal with local issues such as sewers and street repairs.

Candidates are not selected on the basis of party affiliation but as individuals nominated by election meetings in local neighbourhoods where a simple show of hands is sufficient to place a contender on the ballot paper.

Mr Chaviano’s official candidate biography described him as a counter-revolutionary, mentioning that he had taken classes at the US Interests Section in Havana.

Mr Lopez’s biography contained similar information.

Supporters of Julio Cesar Chaldran, who beat Mr Lopez, marched through their working-class neighbourhood of Arroyo Naranjo singing the national anthem and shouting: “Long live the revolution” and “Long live Fidel.”

But Mr Lopez said: “I’m very happy, despite the defeat, to see people supporting me, despite the campaign against me.”