CHANGE? Cuba opens 5-month transition likely to end Castro reign.

Over the rest of September, Cubans will meet in small groups to nominate municipal representatives, the first in a series of votes for local, provincial and, finally, national officials.

In the second electoral stage, a commission dominated by government-linked organizations will pick all the candidates for elections to provincial assemblies and Cuba’s national assembly.

The national assembly is expected to pick the president and members of the powerful Council of State by February. Castro has said he will leave the presidency by that date but he is expected to remain head of the Communist Party, giving him power that may be equal to or greater than the new president’s.

There’s even less change coming that that last line allows for, given that “the government does not allow the participation of parties other than the ruling Communist Party and has worked to quash the election of individual opposition candidates.”

If you like your Communism, you can keep your Communism — or else.