Diaz-Canel sole candidate to succeed Raul Castro

HAVANA: Miguel Diaz-Canel is the sole candidate to succeed Cuba’s President Raul Castro, officials announced 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.

Cuba’s National Assembly on Wednesday began a historic two-day meeting to elect a successor to President Raul Castro, whose departure will end his family’s six-decade grip on power. Stepping down at the age of 86, Castro will leave the way open for a new generation of leaders, with Assembly members widely expected to vote in his successor of choice, First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel. A silver-haired 57-year-old, 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.