Cuba holds oneparty vote as postCastro era looms

HAVANA: Cubans go to the polls yesterday in a one-party vote that marks the penultimate step in a political process that will culminate next month with the selection of the Communist-ruled island’s first non-Castro leader since the 1959 revolution.

The government depicts the vote, which takes place every five years and in which Cubans are asked to endorse two official lists of candidates for the national and provincial assemblies, as a symbolic show of unity.

This year, though, the newlyseated national assembly will on April 19 select a new president to replace Raul Castro, 86, who together with his late older brother Fidel Castro ruled the Caribbean island for nearly six decades.

While Castro is expected to remain at the helm of the powerful Communist Party, First Vice-President Miguel DiazCanel, 57, is expected to become president.

Given he will not have the same moral authority as the ‘historic generation’ of revolutionary leaders, Diaz-Canel will have to earn his legitimacy by addressing voters’ concerns and raising living standards, analysts say. — Reuters