Each Municipality is divided into several electoral districts or constituencies. The residents of each constituency will elect one delegate to their Municipal Assembly from two or more candidates. These candidates are nominated at public meetings held throughout the constituency several weeks before the Municipal election.
For the purpose of organizing these nomination meetings, the constituency is subdivided into smaller nomination areas. They are roughly equivalent to the area spanned by a chapter of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), a neigbourhood watch organization which includes the vast majority of residents over the age of 14 in that area. These meetings are organized by local volunteers and members of the CDR's in the area.
Within the City of Havana, for example, there is the municipality called Plaza de la Revolucion. It is divided into several constituencies. One of them, Constituency Number 12, is an area of eight city blocks. For the 1997 municipal elections, this constituency was divided into 7 nomination areas. Residents of each of these nomination areas met to nominate a candidate for the Municipal Assembly. (Arnold August, in his book Democracy in Cuba, presents a detailed case study of this constituency.)
Nomination meetings are open to all members of the public, including foreign visitors. Any resident of the nomination area who is present at these meetings may nominate any other resident of the same constituency. Voting by a show of hands, residents select one nominee who will be on the ballot for their constituency in the upcoming municipal election. There must be at least two candidates nominated from each constituency.