HAVANA: Cubans approved gay marriage and adoption overwhelmingly in a Sunday referendum backed by the government that also boosted rights for women, the national election commission said on Monday.

More than 3.9 million voters voted to ratify the code (66.9 percent), while 1.95 million opposed ratification (33percent).

“Justice has been done,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote in a tweet.

“It is paying off a debt with several generations of Cuban men and women, whose family projects have been waiting for this law for years,” he said.

The 100-page “family code” legalises same-sex marriage and civil unions, allows same-sex couples to adopt children, and promotes equal sharing of domestic rights and responsibilities between men and women.

Preliminary results from the electoral commission showed 74 percent of 8.4 million Cubans eligible to vote participated in the referendum.

The announcement of the results came as Diaz-Canel presided over an emergency meeting on an approaching hurricane. Twitter accounts showed the room erupting in applause and the president leaning back and smiling at the news.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2022