Will Fidel Castro Be Back?

It's What All Cubans Are Asking After Sunday's Parliamentary Election

The results aren't in yet, but most Cubans agree; the most famous candidate in Sunday's parliamentary election - Fidel Castro - has won overwhelmingly.

If that is true, and there is little reason to doubt it, the Cuban leader sidelined by emergency intestinal surgery nearly 18 months ago is now eligible for election to the Council of State, which in turn elects the nation's president from among its members.

It's the biggest question in Cuba: Will Fidel Castro return - if not as before, at least in title? Or, will his younger brother, First Vice President Raul Castro, who "temporarily" assumed the presidency as provided for by the Cuban Constitution, officially fill the post?

Current parliamentary president, Ricardo Alarcon, who is also Cuba's point-man on U.S. relations, has repeatedly said the 81-year-old Castro will have his vote, but Sunday he couched his answer in more cautious terms.

"I hope that he will continue his recovery in the same successful way he's doing. And we should have no doubt that if he's ready, if he's in a position to continue performing that job, he will. The vast majority of Cubans will be more than happy, including myself," Alarcon told the press.

Although the government has treated the Cuban President's illness as a State secret, Castro himself has been brutally honest about his condition. In an essay published in the official Communist Party daily last week he confessed he was not in any condition to campaign in person in the electoral district where he was nominated as a candidate to parliament.

"I do what I can; I write. For me, this is a new experience. Writing is not the same as speaking. Today, now that I have more time to inform myself and to meditate about what I see, I have barely enough time to write," wrote Castro.

Popular musician Pachito Alonso says he'd like Castro for president "yesterday, today and tomorrow" but that "he's just a human being". Alonso believes the Cuban leader's long years of working through the night have taken a toll, on top of his illness. Still, he says "no matter what, he's an example for us."

Alonso, like other Cubans we talked to, combined support for Castro's Revolution with a critical look at the island's state of affairs.

"A lot of things need to be corrected," says Alonso, son of band leader Pacho Alonso. "For the country to move forward it has to have, first of all, a strong economy. We're a blockaded country (a reference to the U.S. economic and trade embargo against Cuba). We have a lot of difficulties, but we ourselves have to change many things to take the brakes off. There are things that can be done and haven't been done yet."

Like other voters, Alonso hopes the new 614-member parliament elected Sunday - all the candidates are running uncontested - will tackle these issues.

Alarcon points out that with Sunday's vote, two thirds of the lawmakers in parliament will be freshman. "I'm sure they will bring more ideas, more input, and that the parliament's work will constantly improve and respond more efficiently to the needs and aspirations of the Cuban people," he said.

The man who has been running the nation on a day-to-day basis, Raul Castro, 77, described the election as, "a very important step" in the midst of "a complex stage, a stage in which we have to confront different situations and big decisions, little by little."