Diaz-Canel sole candidate to succeed Cuba’s Castro

HAVANA: Miguel Diaz-Canel is the sole candidate to succeed Cuba’s President Raul Castro, officials announced on Wednesday on the eve of a vote in the National Assembly.

Diaz-Canel, a 57-year-old Communist Party official and the country’s current first vice president, is due to be confirmed on Thursday as the successor to Castro, whose departure will end his family’s six-decade grip on power.

The announcement came after the National Assembly began a historic two-day meeting to elect a successor to the 86-year-old Castro, and usher in a post-Castro era. Diaz-Canel has since last year been widely expected to take over from Castro, who made it clear his deputy was his personal choice.

Diaz-Canel has spent decades climbing the party ranks, becoming Castro’s right-hand man in 2013.

At the two-day meeting, which began early on Wednesday, the 605-seat National Assembly is to vote in a new Council of State, which counts 31 members and whose head will automatically become president.