And Cuba literally has open, competitive, and transparent elections. Literally the only barrier to running for office in Cuba is that you need people in the place you're running to support you, which is also a prerequisite to getting people to vote for you in the first place, unless you're a presidential candidate in the US and people only vote for you out of opposition to your opponent and every politician is widely hated by everyone.
Also they literally just ratified a new constitution via public referendum a few years ago which reaffirmed the popular support for the socialist system.
Well yeah, like with the USSR when Gorbachev started liberalization it didn't mean freedom of press, it meant the state media and publishers were put into the hands of a rabid anticommunist to run anticommunist propaganda pieces and censor the left wing opposition, and when they held elections the Communist party was barred from campaigning or helping local Communist parties while the opposition received institutional support from the state media and from the organized crime rings that were the primary beneficiaries of the early waves of privatization. Similarly, in the politburo itself Gorbachev's liberalization didn't mean political freedom, it meant that liberal ideas (well, socdem ideas to be exact - not that there's a real difference in effect given what we know happened - wrapped in marxist language) were the only accepted ones and anyone who so much as supported them too softly was subject to censure and attack as a "Stalinist".
And Cuba literally has open, competitive, and transparent elections. Literally the only barrier to running for office in Cuba is that you need people in the place you're running to support you, which is also a prerequisite to getting people to vote for you in the first place, unless you're a presidential candidate in the US and people only vote for you out of opposition to your opponent and every politician is widely hated by everyone.
Also they literally just ratified a new constitution via public referendum a few years ago which reaffirmed the popular support for the socialist system.
spoiler
When they talk free and fair it means newspapers and tv channels can be run by special interest groups
Well yeah, like with the USSR when Gorbachev started liberalization it didn't mean freedom of press, it meant the state media and publishers were put into the hands of a rabid anticommunist to run anticommunist propaganda pieces and censor the left wing opposition, and when they held elections the Communist party was barred from campaigning or helping local Communist parties while the opposition received institutional support from the state media and from the organized crime rings that were the primary beneficiaries of the early waves of privatization. Similarly, in the politburo itself Gorbachev's liberalization didn't mean political freedom, it meant that liberal ideas (well, socdem ideas to be exact - not that there's a real difference in effect given what we know happened - wrapped in marxist language) were the only accepted ones and anyone who so much as supported them too softly was subject to censure and attack as a "Stalinist".
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I paid for this election and it's a damn liberty that I have to stand in it
I think it means that organizing by fascists is legally protected but leftwing organizing will get you killed by the police.