Cuba will never give up the one-party system, President Raul Castro said in a closing speech to the ruling Communist Party’s national conference held on Friday-Saturday.

“We are defending the one-party system… The concept of a single party we will never give up is fully in line with the fifth article of Cuba’s Constitution, approved by 97.7 percent of voters during a referendum by means of free, direct and secret ballot,” Castro, 80, said.

“Giving up the principle of one party means would just be tantamount to legalizing one or several parties of imperialism on our soil and sacrificing our strategic weapon - the unity of Cubans, which so many generations of patriots dreamed of,” Castro said.